Khaleda Zia's regime: Tarique Rahman smuggled and invested Tk 2000 crore money in Europe, Malaysia and Singapore

Tarique Rahman made thousands of crores of cash through commission trading, extortion and corruption in the five years of the BNP-Jamaat coalition government from 2001 to 2006. He sent the money abroad through his business friend Giasuddin Al Mamun. They invested a part of this money in some European countries, Malaysia and Singapore through five accounts abroad. During the caretaker government, Tarique Rahman, who was detained by law enforcement agencies, said that Mamun and Silver Salim used to look after the matters of sending and investing money abroad. His brother Arafat Rahman Koko, his friend Mamun, and his maternal uncle Sayeed Iskandar looked after his domestic businesses.

The reports were published by the Jugantar on March 12, the Dainik Dinkal on March 13, the Bhorer Kagoj on March 14 and 22 and the Ittefaq on March 15 in 2007.

Initially, Tarique Rahman denied all allegations to the joint forces. But as his friend opened up about their sources of income and remittances abroad and submitted footage, Tarique Rahman went upset and admitted guilty. He gave information about the accounts held in his own name in five foreign banks. It also admitted to having investments in a few countries, including Europe, Malaysia and Singapore.

Tarique informed police that he earned a lot of money through the advertising business monitored by his brother Koko. They controlled the advertising activities and took commissions from foreign advertising agencies through Hawa Bhaban.

No ad firms could do business without paying a commission for five years of the coalition government. Koko used to collect several times more money from the government and private advertising agencies. Khaleda Zia's family members stole crores of money in the name of BTV's peak hour chunk and billboard business.

During the caretaker government, the investigation team found a trace of Tk 2000 crore smuggled by Tarique Rahman abroad. Then police sought the help of the United Nations to return the money. Detectives also interrogated Tarique Rahman and his friend Mamun face-to-face in an extortion case. They also took Mamun to Switzerland, Malaysia and a European country and searched for Tarique's crores of money from the bank there. Based on their statement, the investigation team found wealth worth Tk 2000 crore possessed by Tarique Rahman.

According to the investigation team, Tarique also invested a lot of money in the 15 million projects in South Africa. He had to give details of his $230 million seized in Malaysia. In a face-to-face interrogation, he also admitted to having extorted Tk one crore from a contractor in Dhaka and taken commission from other sectors, including aviation, communication, CNG and the power sector. He also collected a lot of money in exchange for giving party nominations for the January 2007 election. He received crores of money in name of forming party committees across the country through 30 ministers-MPs and leaders, close to Hawa Bhaban.