RingID’s Tk200cr blocked, money laundering inquiry initiated

Bangladesh Bank authorities have blocked around Tk200 crore in three bank accounts of RingID.

Initiatives are also underway to bring back owners of the social media-turned-e-commerce platform to Bangladesh from Canada and prosecute them.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had requested the Bangladesh Bank to block the accounts of RingID on suspicion that the money might be siphoned off abroad, said CID's Cyber Police Centre Special Superintendent Rezaul Masud.

He claimed that some payment gateway service providers, including Foster and SSL, have been involved in money laundering.

Around Tk1,300 crore might have been siphoned off Bangladesh by Foster – a payment gateway for beleaguered e-shopping platforms Evaly, Eorange, Adyan Mart, and Qcoom, said Rezaul.

Meanwhile, the CID has arrested several officials of different e-commerce platforms including online ticketing agency 24tkt.com Director Mizanur Rahman. Six officials of e-commerce platforms Tholay.com and wecoom.com have been arrested for embezzling Tk2.5 crore from customers.

The CID arrested a youth for scamming people with over Tk1 crore by offering to open RingID accounts.

Redwan Rahman, an agent of RingID, was arrested from the Kamrangirchar area of Dhaka on Sunday, said CID Additional Deputy Inspector General Kamrul Ahsan.

He said Redwan was a user of RingID since 2018, but became an agent seven-eight months ago. He cheated around 600 people luring away over Tk1 crore by assuring them RingID accounts.

CID SP Rezaul said that RingID has around 1.5 lakh clients who invested Tk20,000-Tk40,000 each on average.

Earlier, the CID on 1 October arrested ringID Director Saiful Islam for financial embezzlement and said the online multilevel marketing firm under the guise of a social media platform has embezzled some Tk213 crore from users and clients in three months.

Rezaul said this was according to the primary information over transactions of three months from May-July. The platform might have amassed much more money by swindling people, which would be revealed by further investigation.

Starting as a social media platform, the organisation has gradually moved into a multilevel marketing business and collected investment from clients, said the CID official.

Rezaul said ringID had been taking money from clients with promises of community-based jobs and foreign investment. Like some other e-commerce platforms, ringID was offering products with heavy discounts and collecting money from buyers through e-wallet.

Investigators said that they have been receiving a flurry of complaints from people in Bangladesh and abroad.

RingID owner Shariful Islam and his wife Irin Islam are in Canada and have been sued in embezzlement cases in Bangladesh.

Rezaul said that initiatives were underway to bring them back to Bangladesh through Interpol.

The officer said that Bangladesh Bank introduced 'escrow', a third-party payment gateway service last June since there were widespread allegations that the customers were not getting products on time despite paying money in advance.  

RingID was planning to introduce a payment gateway system named ringPay for money laundering, said the CID officer.

He said the CID financial crime unit has initiated a money-laundering inquiry against RingID.