With faked exports, Tk33cr incentive skimmed in five years

Dhaka-based Doe Empex Ltd embezzled Tk4.21 crore incentive against agro-food exports in three years until 2021 that really never took place, according to an investigation.

The inquiry by Chattogram customs found that the firm logged 30 bills of export during the time to claim the government stimulus with forged and faked export documents. Five clearing and forwarding agents, three dummy shipping companies and a few customs officials were found involved in the scam.

The investigation against Doe Empex exposed 872 such faked exports of food items by 18 firms, who had skimmed more than Tk33 crore export incentive in five years since 2017.

The faked consignments include 191 shipments of potatoes and 681 shipments of foodstuff.

The government provides cash incentives to 37 sectors to encourage export.

Exports of agro-processed food, vegetables and fruits get the highest incentives at 20%.

The fraud by Doe Empex was unravelled as the customs noticed there was no export information of the firm in the integrated customs software ASYCUDA World System. Subsequently, Chattogram customs inquired whether the banks concerned had received the export proceeds and if the exporter claimed the incentive accordingly.

Besides, the customs asked the off-docks if they had received and shipped the exporting items as per the bills of export.

The off-docks confirmed to the customs that they had not shipped any of the 30 consignments, against which Doe Empex claimed the export incentive.

Dummy shipping agents

The firm mentioned three shipping agents and freight forwarders in the bills of landing. But the shipping companies – Ocean Freight System, Everest Global Logistics and Green view Logistics – actually do not exist.

Customs officials said neither the shippers have Chattogram customs licence nor there is any information on them available on the Internet. The Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association too said they are unaware of the shippers.

C&F agents shrug off responsibility

The five clearing and forwarding (C&F) agents mentioned in the 30 faked exports claim they were not involved in the scam. They told the customs that their user IDs and password could have been compromised for logging the bills of export.

The agents are – Khl Exim Limited, AK Enterprise-2006, GR Trading Corporation C&F Ltd, A & Trade International, and Pan Bengal Agencies Limited.

But Chattogram customs said the agents could not brush off responsibility since the bills were logged with their credentials.

Rashida Parvin, director of GR Trading Corporation C&F Ltd, said she had no idea about who could have misused their ID and password or why they did so.

"I was sick," said Mohammed Salam, managing director of Pan Bengal Agencies Limited, adding, "I do not know how the name of my organisation came up in this incident."

Doe Empex did not respond to the customs' summoning for hearing twice.

The Business Standard also could not reach Doe Empex Chairman Zia Haider Mithu for comment.

Most of customs suspects transferred

Shipments of the faked exports had signatures of at least 18 customs officials. The signing means the customs staff has conducted the physical inspection of the exporting item and it is good to be shipped.

Besides, online credentials of at least six customs officials were used in tariffing the out-bound items.

"There should be departmental investigations against the officials who signed the faked shipments and cleared ghost items online," said an official of Chattogram customs preferring not to be named.

But most of the officials whose user IDs were used or who signed the shipments have already been transferred from the Chattogram office.

The Business Standard contacted one of the customs officials whose signature a faked consignment had. She refused any involvement to the scam, and said, "I have no involvement as I signed at the last stage of the customs clearance."

Other accused

Apart from Doe Empex, customs sources said they obtained incentive scam evidence against Ms Khan Enterprise, JTF International, Masala Foods Limited, Al Amin Corporation, Ahnaf Corporation, Antora Corporation, Fatema Corporation, Jannat Corporation, MK Agro Food Products, MB Agro Food Products, MT Agro Food Products, Madina Agro, Mamun Enterprise, Miazi Food Products, SS Food Limited, Siyam International and Alvi Enterprise.

Elaus Mamun Miazi – owner of Mamun Enterprise and Miazi Food Products – allegedly skimmed more than Tk7 crore against faked exports.

However, Elaus Mamun Miazi denied the allegation by terming it "completely baseless", and said, "We claimed the incentive by exporting products, not faking it."