https://bdnews24.com/cricket/b72124cc3b92

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has been given more than two months to submit an investigation report against cricketer and former Magura-1 MP Shakib Al Hasan, his mother Shirin Akhter, and 13 others over allegations of embezzlement, fraud, and money laundering in the share market.

Although Sunday was fixed for the report submission, the ACC failed to present it.

As a result, Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Sabbir Foyez set Nov 26 as the next date for submission, said Aminul Islam, assistant director of the ACC prosecution division.

Shakib, Bangladesh’s most successful cricketer, entered parliament in 2024. He was in Canada in August last year when the Awami League government was ousted, and has not returned since.

That same month, Shakib was charged in a murder case filed at Adabor Police Station.

Soon after, the anti-graft agency launched an investigation into allegations of stock market manipulation, involvement in illegal online gambling platforms, gold smuggling, embezzlement from crab traders, corruption in cricket, and concealing assets in his election affidavit.

On May 17, ACC Assistant Director Sajjad Hossain started a case at the agency’s headquarters over embezzlement in the share market. On Jun 16, the court imposed a travel ban on him.

According to the case statement, the suspects used their beneficiary owners’ accounts to conduct unethical and illegal transactions, including speculative and fraudulent trades, to manipulate the market.

It added, they formed a syndicate that artificially drove up the prices of select shares through repeated buy and sell transactions, luring ordinary investors into purchasing the manipulated stocks. As a result, many suffered significant financial losses, while the group embezzled over Tk 2.56 billion presented as abnormal capital gains but in reality criminal proceeds.

One of the key suspects Abul Khair alias Hiru allegedly laundered nearly Tk 299.04 million with assistance from his wife Kazi Sadia Hasan by transferring funds across multiple channels to obscure their origin.

Investigators also flagged over Tk 5.42 billion in suspicious transactions through 17 bank accounts in his name.

The ACC said Shakib invested in shares of Paramount Insurance, Crystal Insurance, and Sonali Paper -- three companies targeted by Khair’s stock manipulation scheme.

“As a result, he [Sakib] became actively involved in market manipulation and lured ordinary investors into those manipulated shares, embezzling Tk 29.5 million disguised as realised capital gain,” the statement read.

In September, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) fined Shakib Tk 5 million for “manipulating” the share price of Paramount Insurance.

At the time, the BSEC also fined Hiru Tk 2.5 million, Eishal Communication Limited Tk 7.5 million, Abul Kalam Matbor Tk 1 million, and Monarch Mart, Lava Electrode Industries, and Zahed Kamal Tk 100,000 each.