A Dhaka court has started trial against controversial e-commerce company Evaly's CEO Mohammad Rassel and his wife and also Chairman Shamima Nasrin for embezzling customers' money.

"Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mehedi Hasan's court framed the charges against the duo on Wednesday (28 December) and fixed 18 February for taking testimony," said lawyer Ahsan Habib, representing the accused in the case.

Rassel, who is currently behind bars, was brought to court for the trial. But Shamima, who is on bail, did not appear and pleaded for more time through the lawyer.

The court, however, rejected the plea and issued an arrest warrant against Shamima.

Launched on 16 December 2018, Evaly pretended to be driven by dreams to build an Amazon or Alibaba of Bangladesh, grew too big riding on a dangerous business model and offering abnormal discounts to attract huge customers, taking advances from them and delivering products months later.

It was apparent that the firm was depending on the fresh flow of advances from customers to clear the previous bills and running the business was synonymous with increasing the liabilities of the firm, identical to a Ponzi scheme.

It all happened before the regulators, policymakers addressed the risk of the widening liabilities of the business and an increasing number of people being trapped there.

Following a petition filed by a customer, the HC on 22 September last year put a moratorium on the sale or transfer of all movable and immovable properties of Evaly.

The court also issued a ruling, asking why a liquidator should not be appointed to wind down the e-commerce platform immediately.

The court on 18 October 2021 formed a four-member new board to manage, control, and assess the liabilities of the e-commerce platform.

According to Evaly's own assessment, it has assets of only Tk121 crore, while it owes customers and merchants more than Tk1,000 crore.

On 15 September last year, an Evaly customer filed a case with Gulshan Police Station against Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin, erstwhile chairman of Evaly, on allegations of fraud and embezzlement.

The Rapid Action Battalion arrested Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin in a raid of their residence in the capital's Mohammadpur area the day after the case was filed.