The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has launched an investigation into allegations of money laundering against e-commerce-based Daraz Bangladesh Ltd.
Some top officials of Daraz have already been interrogated twice on money laundering charges, according the CID. In the interest of the investigation, Daraz authorities have been called again next week with the necessary documents. CID officials say they have information that Daraz has illegally laundered huge sums of money in the name of selling digital products.
If you want to see the documents of the sale of digital products to Daraz, they have not been able to show anything yet.
CID's Financial Crimes Division Special Superintendent of Police Humayun Kabir told the media, "Investigations into Daraz's money laundering are ongoing. We have talked to the Daraz authorities twice. They have been asked for some documents. Legal action will be taken in this regard after the investigation.
According to CID sources, Daraz had been selling fixed cards and rechargeable cards as virtual cards of various foreign banks in the name of selling digital products.
At the same time, they were selling subscription fee payment cards, gift cards from Amazon, Google Play Store and App Store from various Internet-based channels. According to the law of Bangladesh Bank, import of virtual cards of foreign banks is prohibited. But Daraz has been selling these digital products for a long time with regular promotional advertisements on their website. According to the concerned, the virtual card of a foreign bank is a digital product which has only a certain number and a password. It can be fixed as well as recharged. Huge sums of money are being smuggled out of the country through these trades.
In Bangladesh, customers of these cards usually purchase activation fees for different software, development tools for different games, etc. At the same time, money laundering, terrorist financing, drug and arms trafficking, illicit money transactions, and foreign currency buying and selling are paid for through virtual cards around the world. A CID official said during interrogation, Daraz claimed that they acted as a platform to sell goods. Unauthorized digital products are sold by other organizations. They themselves did not import these directly from abroad.
But the investigation has shown that Daraz has taken all the money into its merchant account as opposed to selling digital products. Digital products are a big part of their daily sales. Officials from CID and Bangladesh Bank's Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) are analyzing Daraz's merchant account data.
Meanwhile, it is learned that Daraz's has removed all advertisements of digital products from their e-commerce sites as soon as the search of CID and BFIU started. As a result, the company's daily sales volume has come down to less than half.
In a written statement, Daraz claimed that the smuggling of thousands of crores of taka was baseless. The Daraz authority said one percent of Daraz total sales are digital products and so far no money has been sent abroad. Daraz claims that as a law enforcement agency, they are cooperating with the CID's investigation.
Bangladesh has a market for digital products, services and imports worth around Tk 10,000 crore every year. But almost all the money in this market is being smuggled. If digital products and services were imported through proper rules, the government would get revenue of at least three to Tk 4,000 crore every year.
