Staff Reporter:
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has launched an investigation into Nazrul Islam Majum-dar, owner of NASA Group, for allegedly laundering around $3 million to the United States through trade-based schemes.
According to CID sources, Firoza Garments Ltd., a NASA Group company owned by Majumdar, ac-cepted 130 Letters of Credit (LCs) or sales contracts from National Bank Ltd. between March 2020 and 2024. Although the garments were exported to the U.S. under these contracts, CID’s preliminary inves-tigation revealed that funds were smuggled out of Bangladesh without being repatriated.
Additional allegations surfaced during the probe, with CID uncovering evidence that Majumdar pur-chased luxury properties in London, including homes in Phillimore Gardens and Brunswick Gardens, under his daughter Anika Islam’s name, allegedly through money laundering.
Nazrul Islam Majumdar has evaded customs duties worth hundreds of crores of taka by importing raw materials under the duty-free bond facility and then selling those goods on the domestic market, said Additional Superintendent of Police Azad Rahman of the CID media wing.
Further investigations have found that Majumdar secured approximately Tk 21,000 crore in loans for four companies affiliated with NASA Group. These funds were purportedly smuggled abroad through under-invoicing and over-invoicing schemes involving several countries, including UAE, the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, and Thailand. The Financial Crimes unit is conducting a separate inquiry into these international money laundering allegations.
