Human chain formed protesting harassment of ringID agents

Agents and users of the controversial online platform ringID formed a human chain at the capital's Shahbag area today.

A group of nearly 100 ringID agents and customers gathered in front of the Bangladesh National Museum around 10am on Thursday to protest freezing the bank accounts and "harassment" of the ringID agents amid an ongoing investigation.

Last year in October, Bangladesh Bank authorities blocked around Tk200 crore in three bank accounts of ringID.

On behalf of the e-platform, the protestors demanded government intervention in withdrawing the false charges against ringID.

"I invested Tk10,000 and earned Tk1.5 lakh with the help of ringID. Likewise, many unemployed people got the opportunity to earn well by using this platform," said Sajjad Hossain, one of the protesters who took part in the human chain.

"Thus, I am urging the government to withdraw the case against ringID," he told TBS.

ringID allegedly embezzled over Tk200 crore in just three months this year by luring people into its Ponzi scheme of promising online income.

Reportedly, it has around 1.5 lakh clients who invested Tk20,000-Tk40,000 each on average.

The platform stopped selling memberships and money transactions from 23 September last year after The Business Standard and other media brought their fraudulent activities to light.

Several law enforcement agencies, who have been keeping an eye on ringID, told TBS that the actual amount embezzled might be higher. Bank statements from other months are now being scrutinised.

On 28 September, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of the Bangladesh Bank sought the bank details of ringID when the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) requested for their bank details.

The BFIU also asked banks to disclose if they have any bank accounts belonging to ringID Distribution Limited and ringID BD Limited.

ringID, which follows a typical MLM model but calls itself a "community business", multiplies the number of its members by offering current ones Tk1,500 to Tk1,700 for adding a new member.

They give money to students for viewing and sharing adverts, adding new members to ringID, selling its products and coin transactions.

Lured by hefty income offers, existing members assemble their family members, friends and acquaintances on the ringID platform.

After the investigation started, CID arrested a youth for scamming people by over Tk1 crore by offering to open ringID accounts. Later, another agent named Redwan Rahman was arrested from Kamrangirchar area of Dhaka.

CID Additional Deputy Inspector General Kamrul Ahsan said, "Redwan was a user of ringID since 2018, but became an agent seven-eight months ago. He cheated around 600 people by embezzling Tk1 crore from them while promising them ringID accounts."

On 1 October, CID arrested ringID Director Saiful Islam over financial embezzlement and said the online multilevel marketing firm under the guise of a social media platform has embezzled some Tk213 crore from users and clients in three months.

CID SP Rezaul said this was according to the primary information over transactions of three months from May-July. The platform might have amassed much more money by swindling people, which would be revealed upon further investigation.

Rezaul said ringID had been taking money from clients with promises of community-based jobs and foreign investment. Like some other e-commerce platforms, ringID was offering products with heavy discounts and collecting money from buyers through e-wallet.

Investigators said that they have been receiving a flurry of complaints from people in Bangladesh and abroad.

ringID was planning to introduce a payment gateway system named ringPay for money laundering, said the CID officer.

He also noted that the CID financial crime unit has initiated a money-laundering inquiry against ringID.