Staff Reporter :
A fraudulent ring is stealing crores of taka from banks with fancy tactics. RAB has arrested eight people including Abdur Rahman Biswas, the ringleader of the gang.
At a press conference on Sunday (March 6th) at noon, the RAB’s spokesman Commander Khandaker Al Moin said that on Saturday (March 5th) night, an expedition team from RAB headquarters intelligence branch and RAB-4 conducted operations in city’s Mirpur, Hazaribagh, Jatrabari and Badda areas and arrested eight accused of the gang.
The arrested maen have been identified as Abdur Rahman Biswas, Md. Tareq Aziz, Tahmid Uddin Pathan alias Sohan, Md. Rabiul Hasan, Habibur Rahman alias Elias, Md. Kamrul Hasan, Md. Sujan Mia and Md. Abdul Quader.
At that time, two bank check books, one ATM card, four ID cards, one gold necklace, one pair of bracelets, one pair of earrings, one ring and 9 lakh 41 thousand 555 taka in cash were recovered.
According to RAB officials, the arrested are an organized circle. They have been working together for the last 2/3 years.
At one point they formed a syndicate with Abdur Rahman as the head. He said he learned the matter from one of his colleagues. The detainees were engaged in money laundering and monitoring at the bank’s ATM booth. They load money at 231 ATM booth machines in Dhaka city. There are 19 loaders employed to place money in 231 ATM booth machines.
According to RAB, the detainees deliberately jammed 19 consecutive 1000 taka notes or other fixed amount of money while placing money in the loading tray. If a client enters the ATM card to withdraw money at the ATM booth and commands with a secret PIN number, that amount would be deposited in the purse bin without delivery. Later they would take that money away. In this case, they used the technique machine to embezzle the money.
In the past, RAB has arrested several locals and foreigners for robbing ATM booths, murder and illegally withdrawing money through card fraud. The management of ATM booths of various banks in Bangladesh is done through third party or outsourcing. Third parties are responsible for monitoring money laundering, security and technical faults.
A recent audit of a private bank revealed a number of similarities between ATM booth money. As a result, the bank authorities changed the third party. However, irregularities and inconsistencies continue to be observed. The bank authorities and the third party resorted to the RAB as a source of confidence in the matter. As a result, RAB detectives increased surveillance and began shadow investigations.
At one point in the shadow investigation, the RAB revealed that although the third party had changed, the money loader and other technical teams had not changed. As a result, the RAB continued its investigation. The arrested persons are involved with embezzling crores of taka from more than 200 ATM booth machines of private banks.
