HC summons People’s Leasing ex-chairman Moazzem

The High Court has summoned former Chairman of the Board of People's Leasing and Financial Services (PLFS) Limited, M Moazzam Hossain and two of his family members over the charges of transferring PLFS's shares to their personal accounts.

The court asked them to appear before it on 3 February, seeking an explanation their roles in transferring the shares.

A single bench of the HC Justice Khurshid Alam Sarkar on Tuesday passed the order hearing the petition filed by Md Asaduzzaman Khan, a provisional liquidator of People's Leasing, which is currently in the process of liquidation.

The court summoned the representatives of two other organisations to explain the matter.

The court summoned PLFS former chairman M Moazzem Hossain and two of his family members to explain why they should not be directed to transfer the shares held by them to PLFS' account, lawyer Mezbahur Rahman said.

People's Leasing and Financial Services Limited, a non-bank financial institution, spent more than Tk6.25 crore on shares in the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of SS Steel Limited in 2015.

31.30 lakh shares with a face value of Tk10 were transferred in favor of People's Leasing after the IPO approval of SS Steel Limited in 2018. M Moazzem Hossain, the erstwhile chairman of People's Leasing, transferred the remaining 31.25 lakh shares in favor of his Beneficiary Owners (BO) account, without transferring them to PLFS' account.

Lawyer Mezbahur Rahman said, ''People's Leasing is undergoing a liquidation process, with the High Court's approval. Provisional Liquidator Mohammad Asaduzzaman Khan filed an application on 9 December last year under Section 331 of the Company Act.''

In the application, he sought the court's directives to regain the 31.25 lakh shares and to summon Moazzem and his family members to explain their roles in this regard, he said.

Upon hearing the petition, the court summoned M Moazzem Hossain and four others from three organisations to seek their explanation.

According to Mezbahur Rahman, the two family members of Moazzem Hossain are Farzana Moazzam and Eashan-E-Moazzam.

People's Leasing has been consistently incurring losses since 2015. The company has not been able to recover money from the defaulters, neither has it been able to return funds to the depositors.

Earlier on 14 July 2019, Bangladesh Bank filed a case in the court for liquidation of People's Leasing. After hearing the case, the court directed to take steps to do so.