The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) of Bangladesh arrested the Chief Operating Officer and two other officials of e-commerce company Dhamaka in Dhaka today on charges of cheating customers and fraud. The company owes about 190 crores to sellers and about 200 crore to customers. Probe has been going on against the company on money laundering charges since June this year.
Dhamaka lured customers with promises of heavy discounts through large scale advertising in the media. Earlier, the CEO and Chairperson of Bangladeshi e-commerce company Evaly were arrested on September 16 for defrauding thousands of customers. Three arrested Dhamaka Shopping officials have told the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) that they did not have any licence for running e-commerce business but still they transacted more than Tk750 crore in just a year through one of their company’s accounts.
The RAB said Dhamaka has siphoned off a huge amount of money. They had no investment and they mainly followed the “inventory zero model,” where the company aspired to hold little or no on-hand inventory stock.
“Their (Dhamaka’s) plan was to embezzle money by collecting huge cash through various lucrative offers,” RAB’s Legal and Media Wing Director Commander Khandaker Al Moin told reporters in a press briefing at its media centre in Karwan Bazar yesterday.
“Now Dhamaka Shopping owes Tk200 crore to its suppliers, Tk150 crore and refund cheques of Tk35-40 crore to its customers. But, it has only Tk1 lakh in the accounts,” said the RAB’s media wing director.
On 23 September, a customer filed a case against 11 officials of the e-commerce platform with Tongi West police station on charge fraud and embezzling Tk1.55 lakh as they failed to deliver products even after 45 days of receiving the order.
Following this, the elite force Tuesday arrested Sirajul Islam Rana, chief operating officer of Dhamaka, Imtiaz Hasan Shobuj, head of mobile fashion and lifestyle category and Ibrahim Shwapon, head of electronics category, from the capital’s Tejgaon area.
Earlier on 10 September, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police sued Dhamaka Shopping Managing Director SMD Jasim Uddin Chisti, his wife and two sons, and a director of the company for laundering around Tk116.68 crore to three othercompanies owned by them.
The CID has not yet arrested any of the accused in the money laundering case
e-CAB suspends Dhamaka, Evaly membership
The e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB) has suspended memberships of four e-commerce platforms, including Evaly, Dhamaka, Sirajganj Shop and Glitters RST World.
Earlier, the e-CAB sent show-cause notices to 16 companies on 18 July following several allegations of fraud from customers and merchants.
“The four suspended members did not give any satisfactory response to the show-cause notices. They did not follow the e-commerce guidelines on time as well,” e-CAB General Manager Jahangir Alam Shovon told The Business Standard on Wednesday.
In August, the e-Cab suspended memberships of four e-commerce firms, including Eorange and 24tkt.
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