THE government itself put the fate of the three lakh victims of the multi-level marketing company JUBOK in limbo even after eight years of disbanding the deceitful company for cheating with clients and laundering money. A daily reported that a legal tangle has put a bar on the appointment of an administrator at JUBOK as the Societies Registration Act (SRA) lacks the provision, though the notorious company was running under the obsolete SRA. A commission formed by the Commerce Ministry to recommend the fate of JUBOK gave the suggestion to appoint an administrator to solve the long-pending issue. Provision of appointing an administrator existed under the jurisdiction of the Companies Act and the Banking Companies Act. We fear that the shortcoming of the laws could free the cheaters of JUBOK, which could also occur in the case of other fraudulent multi-level marketing companies.
In this context, the Law Ministry said any provision for appointing an administrator could be taken into account to deal with the fraudulent cases of Jubo Karmasangsthan Society (JUBOK) only under the SRA. The opinion also mentions that no other acts or regulations will be applicable to deal with the fraudulent cases of JUBOK, and appointing an administrator for the company does not serve any justified purpose. On the other hand, a senior official of Commerce Ministry said it has become handicapped with regard to appointing an administrator at JUBOK as recommended by a Commission, as the Law Ministry outlined the policy applications and put restrictions on applying certain available laws of the country.
Now the Commerce Ministry would like to have an updated SRA as the 1860 SRA is inappropriate to deal with such falsified acts. The Companies Act and Banking Companies Act have separate provisions on appointing administrators to any errant companies. The BCA-1991 falls under the jurisdiction of Finance Ministry and Bangladesh Bank, while the Commerce Ministry is the sole authority to apply rules under the Companies Act-1944.
Registered in 1997 under the SRA, JUBOK had earned a notorious reputation for cheating over three lakh clients and laundering their thousands of crores of deposit money. At least 17 subsidiaries of JUBOK which had business interests in real estate, telecommunication, tourism, health and agriculture took deposits from the non-suspecting clients promising hefty profits only to cheat them, the daily added. None of the affected clients of JUBOK got back the money they had deposited with the fraudster due to the government’s inaction over the years. They have been waiting for years to get back the money which the government promised them while appointing the first commission in 2010 and a permanent commission was also appointed in 2011 to deal with the issue. No result could be produced mainly due to differences in opinion among the Ministries.
The long-standing issues of JUBOK has to be resolved as early as possible. But the tragedy lies in the inter-ministerial disputes between the Law Ministry and the Commerce Ministry ( supported by the Finance Ministry) over the mode of action to resolve the issue. We suggest, the interest of the affected common people should not be ignored.
