ringID Director Saiful arrested
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Friday arrested ringID Director Saiful Islam from Gulshan in the capital.
The controversial social media platform allegedly embezzled over Tk200 crore in just three months this year by luring people into its Ponzi scheme of promising online income.
In primary interrogation, Saiful confessed ringID is not authorised to collect such deposits from users, CID said in a press release today.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
The platform received Tk23.94 crore in May, Tk109 crore in June and Tk79.38 crore in July offering people the chance to earn money online, the press release adds.
According to several bank statements of the platform, it was a multi-level marketing (MLM) fraud.
The platform stopped selling memberships and money transactions from 23 September 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 for the last one month, told TBS that the actual amount embezzled might be higher. Bank statements from other months are now being scrutinised.
Meanwhile, a victim has filed a case against 25 people, including ringID owners – Shariful Islam, his wife Irin Islam and brother Saiful Islam – on allegation of embezzling crores of taka.
On 28 September, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of the Bangladesh Bank sought the bank details of ringID when the CID requested for their bank details. The BFIU also asked banks to inform if there are 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, 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 earning offers, existing members assemble their family members, friends and acquaintances on the ringID platform.
