ACC detected Samrat’s investment in Malaysia 2 year ago

The Anti-Corruption Commission is yet to take any visible action against suspended Dhaka City South unit Awami Juba League president Ismail Hossain Samrat even after detecting his investment in Malaysia My Second Home programme two years ago.

A team of the commission in early 2017 submitted a proposal to its chairman to send it to Malaysia after it detected Samrat procured a second home at Ampang town there and the proposal was rejected and they were asked to look into the sources of income of a group of Bangladeshis including Samrat who invested in the second home programme, commission officials said.

The team was reconstituted at that time and there was no visible progress on the issue, they added.

The commission secretary Muhammad Dilwar Bakth told New Age that is officials were still searching sources of incomes of the people who had investment in MM2H programme. He said the commission would serve notices on them soon asking them to submit wealth statements.

Ismail, now in police custody, was suspended from Awami Juba League on October 6 after he was arrested by Rapid Action Battalion at Cumilla during the ongoing drives against casinos and other illegal businesses.

After launching the inquiry on MM2H programme in 2013, the commission through the foreign ministry requested Malaysia in 2014 to provide information on Bangladeshis investors in the project.

Responding to the request, Malaysia in 2015 said they would not share the information as per its ‘personal data protection policy’.

‘… all information regarding to MM2H participants are deemed classified and could not be disclosed. Therefore, the government of Malaysia is not in the position to grant the data as requested by the esteemed government of Bangladesh. However, should there be any criminal case against a particular Bangladeshi MM2H applicants, the request for information can be forwarded to the MM2H Secretariat under the Ministry Of Tourism and Culture in Malaysia for further consideration,’ Malaysian authorities told the commission.

Malaysia said such requests would be handled on a case-by-case basis, subject to further approval by the MM2H special committee, said the commission officials.

Since 2002, when Malaysian government invited Bangladeshis to invest in the MM2H, a good number of Bangladeshis illegally sent their money there to have their second homes in Malaysia.

In 2016, at least 189 Bangladeshis invested in the Malaysian programme while the figure was 215 in 2015.

In 2014, Bangladesh Bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit officials visited Kuala Lumpur what turned out to be a futile exercise to gather information about Bangladeshis who bought homes in Malaysia.

According to information released by Malaysian government, 2,850 Bangladeshis bought their second homes in Malaysia from 2004 to 2014.

Second home owners were entitled to get multiple entry visa for Malaysia for a decade and social pass for the same duration.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net