Home ›› 05 Oct 2021 ›› Back
The managing directors of Qcoom and SPC World Express were arrested on Sunday in Dhaka for their alleged involvement in fraud and embezzlement in the pretext of e-commerce business.
The Detective Branch arrested Qcoom’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Md Ripon Mia while the Criminal Investigation Department nabbed SPC World Express’ MD and CEO Md Al Amin and Director Sharmin Akhter in separate drives at Dhanmondi and Bailey Road.
DB’s Additional Commissioner AKM Hafiz Akhtar said that Qcoom ventured into e-commerce during the pandemic when the digital retail economy flourished.
Qcoom is not delivering products even after receiving payments from clients. “We arrested Ripon after aggrieved clients lodged complaints,” Akhtar told the media on Monday.
Bangladesh Bank launched the escrow system in June, under which a payment gateway system is introduced through third parties. ‘Foster’ was the payment gateway of Qcoom.
Under this system, Foster gets the customer’s payment once a client places an order. The fund is transferred to Qcoom after confirmation of product delivery. Foster halts the transfer if customers do not receive their products.
The gateway froze payments worth around Tk 397 crore for purchasing motorcycles after finding out that Qcoom was handing out cheques instead of delivering goods, Akhtar said.
Meanwhile, CID’s SP (Organised Crime Department) Humayun Kabir said SPC World Express MD and CEO Al Amin and Director Sharmin planned to expand their business with positive reviews from clients.
They received orders worth around Tk 5-6 crore a month. At present, they have around 10 million customers, most of them students and lower-middle-income people, he told a press conference on Monday.
Al Amin started withholding products as they received more orders. He gave aggrieved customers cheques but they were dishonoured, the CID official said.
Humayun said Al Amin was arrested in November 2020 on charges of embezzling Tk 268 crore from customers. He was later released on bail.
He was a senior team leader and trainer at Destiny 2000. SPC World has been modelled after Destiny and Jubok, a multi-level marketing company.
The CID official said that Al Amin and Sharmin have been arrested in a case filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act filed at Kalabagan Police Station.
