Seven Sued for Share Scheme Including Summit Chairman
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a case on Tuesday, 26 August, at its Coordinated District Office in Dhaka-1 against Mohammad Farid Khan, chairman of Summit Communications Limited, along with six others. The accused include BTRC panel lawyer Khandakar Reza-e-Rakib, former BTRC chairman Engineer Md. Mohiuddin Ahmed, former BTRC commissioner (Legal) Md. Aminul Haq Babu, former commissioner (Spectrum) Sheikh Riaz Ahmed, former commissioner (Finance, Accounts & Revenue) Dr. Mushfiq Mannan Chowdhury, and former commissioner (Systems & Services) Md. Delwar Hossain.
The case, filed on behalf of the government, alleges a revenue loss of BDT 102,452,652, and was submitted by ACC Assistant Director Md. Nasrullah Hossain. According to ACC Director General Akhtar Hossain, a seven-member team led by ACC Deputy Director Md. Alamgir Hossain is investigating corruption and irregularities in the Summit Group.
The ACC alleges that with the assistance of BTRC officials and the Lex Council panel lawyer, Summit Communications illegally issued 142,088,136 new ordinary shares. Of these, 94,488,911 shares were allocated to UAE-based Global Enaring, owned by Mohammad Aziz Khan and his family, 40,495,119 shares went to Mauritius-based Sequoia Infra Tech Limited, and the remaining 7,004,406 shares were given in favor of previous shareholder Md. Arif Al Islam. The share issuance quadrupled the company’s capital, increasing total shares from 50.7 million to 192.8 million. Consequently, Mohammad Farid Khan’s ownership dropped from 95% to 25%, while the joint ownership of the two foreign companies rose to 70%.
Under Section 24 of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Act, 2001, 5.5% revenue is payable to the government for share transfers or ownership changes. While this rule was applied in a 2022 share transfer of the same company, the ACC alleges that BTRC lawyer Khandakar Reza-e-Rakib illegally advised that the 5.5% revenue was not applicable to Summit Communications, enabling the former BTRC chairman and relevant commissioners to approve the shares unlawfully. This resulted in an estimated revenue loss of approximately BDT 102.4 million for the government.
