Ctg man arrested on charges of embezzling Tk11.90cr from his niece

Detective police in Chattogram have arrested a man named Saleh Muhammad Abu Foyez, 50, who allegedly stole some Tk12 crore from his niece by forging her bank account's signature and transferring shares.

Abu Foyez, from the Rangunia area, was arrested on Thursday afternoon from the port city's GEC intersection. 

Ali Hossain, Deputy Commissioner (West) of Chattogram Metropolitan Detective Police said, "A case was filed in connection with the embezzlement of Tk11.90 crore. The victim, Selina Akhter, also the plaintiff of the case, brought allegations of transferring cash and bank shares by forging her signature."

Selina Akhtar, currently an expatriate living in the United Arab Emirates, mentioned in the case statement that her father deceased Abdus Salam was the director of NCC Bank. After her father's death, the brothers and sisters became the owners of their late father's shares. Since the plaintiff is an expat living in Dubai with her husband and her brother is a pilot, she nominated her maternal uncle Saleh Muhammad Abu Foyez as the authorised director of the NCC Bank.

The defendant later opened a bank account in the plaintiff's name. While the name and address of the plaintiff were used in the account, the defendant gave his mobile number and e-mail address. As a result, the accused gained the scope to make transactions without the plaintiff's knowledge. The defendant also opened accounts in the name of the plaintiff in LankaBangla Security's Nasirabad Branch and Eastern Bank's Panchlaish Branch. The accused received shares, transfer of shares and dividends through those accounts, says the case statement.

"As I was living abroad, I had no clue that the defendant used his mobile number and email address to embezzle money through a transfer of shares without my knowledge from 2009 to 2022. He not only embezzled money, he even took a loan from LankaBangla Securities in my name. Since 2016, the loan instalments were being paid from the dividends received against my shares. Outstanding debt in Lankabangla Securities is currently about Tk61 lakh," said Selina Akhtar.

Selina said that after she recently returned from abroad to collect and share information from the NCC Bank to file her income tax, she got to know about the loan in her name in LankaBangla Securities.

Then, Selina eventually found out about the elaborate trickery of her uncle after she talked with the financial institutions, including Lanka Bangla Securities and the Eastern Bank. 

"Since he is my own uncle, we tried to solve the matter internally within the family. Although he initially confessed to the fraud and promised to return the money, he in fact bought himself some time and did return anything. Therefore, I was forced to file a case," added Selina Akhtar.