A man has been held from Dhaka on charges of embezzling about Tk 200 crore by conning investors and clients under the disguise of digital marketing.
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) claimed arrest of Abdus Salam Palash, 27, owner of Rex IT Institute, from Bashundhara around 10:00pm on Friday.
Molla Nazrul Islam, special superintendent of CID, disclosed the arrest in a press briefing today.
“It appears Salam misappropriated around Tk 200 crore under the pretense of outsourcing, graphics design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), website design, digital marketing, and online transactions,” he said in the briefing.
A car, cash of Tk 6.71 lakh, five laptops, and banking documents were seized from his apartment and office in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi area.
Following a number of complaints, the CID launched an investigation into Palash’s businesses and found the allegations to be true, Molla Nazrul said.
Hailing from Chandraganj of Lakshmipur, Palash started Rex IT Institute with a few partners in 2017. The institute says it provides training to people on outsourcing, graphic design, SEO, web design, and digital marketing.
“The company first lures investors into the digital world using free marketing techniques. Then they provide lucrative offers of paid marketing through social media platforms. They would offer a 50 percent to 100 percent return on investment to investors in the company. Over five thousand trainees at the company were convinced to invest in this manner,” he said.
In primary interrogation, Palash admitted to his involvement with crime.
“Investors needed a PayPal account for global online transactions. As PayPal has no operations in Bangladesh, investors use his American PayPal account which gives him the opportunity to embezzle the money,” the CID official added.
A case has been filed against Palash with Dhanmondi Police Station for money laundering and forgery.