Appellate Div upholds HC decision to appoint receiver at Beximco

A chamber court of the Appellate Division has upheld the High Court's order of appointing a receiver to oversee all assets of the Beximco Group.

Chamber Judge Md Rezaul Haque gave the order today (1 October) after hearing an application by Beximco Group seeking suspension of the High Court order.

The court fixed 28 October for the full bench of the Appellate Division to hear the matter.

The High Court on 19 September directed the Bangladesh Bank to appoint a receiver to conduct the functions of the Beximco Group and attach all its assets.

A receiver, in legal terms, is an independent and impartial person appointed as a custodian of a person or entity's property, finances, general assets, or business operations. Receivers can be appointed by courts, government regulators, or private entities.

Beximco Group scams

Beximco Group Vice Chairman Salman F Rahman is under investigation over various allegations, including smuggling Tk36,000cr abroad by taking loans from banks, embezzlement, illegally amassing wealth, and share market fraud.

Salman, who was the private industry and investment adviser to former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, has been widely identified as the man behind the stock market scams in 1996 and 2010.

However, using courts during Awami League's tenure in power, he has managed to suppress any action against him and this impunity just kept fuelling his hunger for bigger scams through bank loans and the capital market.

In the mid-2010s, Salman was cleared through the High Court from the 1996 stock market scam charges. Later, an inquiry report by Khondokar Ibrahim Khaled also mentioned him as one of the key manipulators responsible for the 2010 scam and asked the government and regulators to remain careful about him.

But Hasina did not lend an ear, instead making him the most powerful man in the economic administration in 2019.

Later in 2020-21, Salman paid debenture investors back and used this power to launch large-scale financial schemes, such as the Beximco Green Sukuk, which raised Tk3,000 crore and was reportedly forced onto banks.

A zero-coupon bond worth Tk1,000 crore followed last year, with allegations of misleading investors while transferring default risks to IFIC Bank, which he controlled at the time.

His attempt to collect further Tk1,500 crore through another Beximco bond earlier this year was not fully successful due to the political regime change.

During the pandemic, Beximco Limited showed unbelievable profits and its shares surged to nearly Tk200 from Tk14 in three years. Salman's intimidating phone calls for not selling Beximco shares during the stock rally and forcing state-owned banks to buy shares at high prices were the talk of the town in 2022.

Besides, Salman and his associates were behind manipulating many other stocks in the past five years, according to market stakeholders.

How much he amassed from the stock market scams is yet to be learned. It is believed to be worth thousands of crore.