Online casino kingpin Salim laundered hundreds of crores of taka, suspects RAB

Recently arrested Salim Prodhan reportedly laundered hundreds of crores of taka that he had amassed during his reign as the online casino kingpin of Dhaka. 

He earned around Tk9 crore a month from a single digital gateway, said sources at the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), which prompted them to suspect that Salim might have laundered hundreds of crores in the last two years.

All the earnings from his online casinos were stored in three digital gateways.

The online casino kingpin used three bank accounts – with the Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Jamuna Bank and the United Commercial Bank – for cashing out his digital earnings.

The money was then deposited to bank accounts both at home and abroad, sometimes using informal channels, known as hundi. 

RAB learned about the details of Salim's virtual gambling empire and money laundering operations after conducting an 18-hour drive, that began on Monday night, at two online casino offices in Gulshan and Banani. 

The elite force also arrested one of Salim's associates, Md Akteruzzaman, from his Banani office.

RAB seized Tk29 lakh during the drive – around Tk8 lakh from Gulshan and Tk21 lakh from the Banani office. 

They also confiscated currencies of 23 countries – including US dollars and Malaysian ringgit – amounting to Tk77.6 lakh, from the Gulshan office.  

The elite force also found 48 bottles of foreign liquor, 12 passports, 32 cheque books of 13 banks, a data server of an online casino, four laptops and two deer hides during the raids.  

Under surveillance before casino crackdown 

While briefing journalists on Tuesday afternoon, Lt Col Sarwar Bin Kashem, commanding officer of RAB 1, said Salim had been under the surveillance of their Cyber Crime Monitoring Cell way before the casino crackdowns began.

Following the September 18 crackdown, he had attempted to flee the country several times. 

On Monday, RAB was alerted when Salim went through immigration at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and boarded a Thai Airways flight. 

A team then detained him from the plane and took him to the RAB 1 office. During primary interrogation, Salim confessed to his involvement in the illegal online casino business. 

Based on information revealed during the interrogation, a RAB team took him to his Gulshan 2 office for a drive. Another team cordoned off his Banani office on Tuesday morning. 

Lt Col Kashem also said cases will be filed against Salim under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, the Wildlife Act and the Narcotics Control Act. 

The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit of the central bank has already ordered freezing of Salim's bank accounts.  

Rise of the online casino kingpin

Born and raised in Dhaka, Salim went to Japan in 1988 with his elder brother to start vehicle trading business, said RAB intelligence sources.   

But his business never took off in Japan, and a few years later, they moved to Thailand where he was introduced to a North Korean national, who went by the name of Mr Duo.   

Together, Duo and Salim started a ship-breaking business in Pataya, Thailand. Later, they also got involved in the gambling business in Thailand. In 2017, Duo offered Salim to run online casinos in Bangladesh. 

In 2018, Salim founded Prodhan Group and got involved in construction and parlour-spa businesses in Dhaka. 

Duo and Salim ran their online casinos using the company as a front. They each had a 50-50 stake in both companies. 

Salim also confessed to being very close to a once powerful BNP politician, Giasuddin Al Mamun, who had gifted him a BMW car and helped him establish his construction and spa businesses in Dhaka. 

How did online gambling work?

To play at any of Samrat's online casinos, one had to install their software on either a smartphone or a computer.

RAB 1 Commanding Officer Kashem said Prodhan Group had bought the software from Thailand. 

To support the operation, they installed a large data server at Salim's Gulshan office, from where they monitored and controlled all online gambling activities.

A player had to open an account and join the virtual gambling arena. To pay money, they would use bKash, Nagad, debit or credit cards, or any other digital payment platforms.

After purchasing digital coins on the server, the player could play against gamblers from both home and abroad.  

Prodhan Group's website mentions that they "work in partnership with customers in established gambling markets to deliver world-leading Live Casino solutions". 

"We are active in the fastest growing casino segment in Asia," the website boasts.

The company also served Bangla language manuals to newcomers in the world of virtual gambling. 

Of the two companies that ran the online casino business, Salim operated P24 Gaming, while his associate Md Akteruzaman ran T21 Gaming.