Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) revealed that ten exporters have laundered Tk300 crore in the name of RMG exports.

The companies are Progga Fashion Limited, Fashion Trade, MDS Fashion, Hong Kong Fashions Limited, Three-star Trading, Fortune Fashion, Pixi Knitwears Limited, Stylise BD Limited and Eden Style Tex.

The laundering came to light after the CIID found a disparity between the bill of export and Exp of these 10 exporters, reads a press release issued by the CIID today (4 September).

Exp means ''Export Permission'', which is issued by authorised dealer banks. 

In the press release, CIID also mentioned these 10 companies had forged their bill of export to use the Exp of other companies. During its investigation, the directorate found evidence that these 10 exporters fabricated 1,234 challans.

With these 1,234 challans, around $35.36 million (equivalent to Tk300 crore), were supposed to be paid against 9,121 metric tonnes of products. But no such money arrived in the country.

CIID also found out that the companies mentioned the weight of each t-shirt as 500-1,000 grams in its bill of export. However, each kilogram of knit fabric can produce at least 3-6 long-sleeved L-size t-shirts. 

Going through the documents of the exporters, CIID found out these exporters used forged documents to export t-shirts, tops, ladies' jeans, trousers, baby sets and polo shirts to the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Australia, Canada, Thailand, Sudan, France, Slovenia, Panama, Tonga, Oman, Brunei and Nigeria in order to launder the money.

C&F agents in these cases were - MAJ Shipping Corporation, A&J Trade International, GR Trading Corporation, NH Corporation, KRS C&F Ltd, Pan Bengal Agency, Porag SMS Ltd, Riyanka International, and M/s AK Enterprise.