Bangladesh Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate is probing 10 Indian apparel exporters for money laundering of over Rs. 295 crores (US $ 35 million) under the cover of exporting readymade garments.
These export companies are Pragya Fashion, Fashion Trade, MDS Fashion, Hong Kong Fashion, Three Star Trading, Fortune Fashion, Anupam Fashionware, Pixi Knitwears, Stylize BD and Eden Style Tex.
As per media reports, in a letter to their Indian counterparts, Bangladesh Customs named these 10 Indian garment exporters and identified these firms exporting garments from Chattogram Port Container Terminal but the foreign currency was not being repatriated.
It has been alleged by Bangladesh customs that exporting firms forged bills of exports using the export license and codes of other exporting firms to smuggle remittance abroad.
The probe identified 1,234 shipments of 9,121 metric tonnes of exports with repatriable foreign exchange of US $ 35 million.
The intelligence said that the exporters have forged the bill of export and exported goods using Bangladesh Bank’s Export Monitoring System (EXP) of other exporters. On the contrary, no money has returned to the country or the money has been smuggled abroad for the entire export value.
Bangladesh has shared documents to India of the garment dealers exporting T-shirts, tops, trousers, baby sets, women fashion clothing etc. to UAE, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and other African nations using the Chattogram port facilities.
The exporters had allegedly mentioned Southeast Bank as holding lien for the shipments of the export value of the sales contracts in the bill of exports but Shamsul Arefin Khan, Joint Director, Bangladesh Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate denied Southeast bank had received funds from abroad for the exports. He said that it is a case of money laundering by apparel exporters in collusion with clearing and forwarding agents to clear customs formalities and ship the exports consignment. The process of taking appropriate legal action against the 10 exporters is ongoing.