MTFE operates freely in Rajshahi | Cops roll one month after a court order of joint investigation

The Ponzi trading company Metaverse Foreign Exchange Group Inc (MTFE) operated freely, even by setting up offices, in Rajshahi city for four months till the end of July.

On July 23, when a case was filed with a court over MTFE’s fraudulent activities of trapping hundreds of people with promises of unusually large returns, the Dubai-based organisation’s local operatives went underground.

On the same day of filing the case, the Cyber Tribunal of Rajshahi ordered a joint investigation into the fraud by the Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP), Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), and Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Still, MTFE operatives managed to remain active till August 17 when the company shut down swindling away the investments of hundreds of people.

The law enforcers yielded on Thursday, over a week after MTFE shut down and one month after the court order, by arresting two suspects -- Debedranath Saha, 43, of Rajshahi, and Latiful Bari, 42, of Naogaon.

“An investigation needs time,” said Biplob Bijoy Talukder, commissioner of RMP, while talking to The Daily Star Thursday.

“We formed the joint investigation team as per the court order and investigated into case and made two arrests,” he said.

PBI and CID officials echoed him.

The Daily Star talked to a few victims of the MTFE scam in the city’s Ahmedpur area who revealed on condition of anonymity that they started investing in April.

“We’re ashamed of our plight,” said one of the victims adding that some of them managed to earn some profits before the smartphone application stopped functioning taking away their investment.

 

The case

Md Zahurul Islam, a lawyer, filed a case under the Digital Security Act of 2018 with the Cyber Tribunal of Rajshahi on July 23, on public interest.

As no action was taken by the authorities concerned, vested groups of MTFE operated Rajshahi and trapped people into investments without the approval of Bangladesh Bank, Islam alleged.

MTFE even opened an office at Laxmipur area of the city and Sabuj, a youth, operated it under the nose of Rajpara police station, the case description says.

The case named another youth, Rubel of Durgapur, who lured hundreds of people to invest in MTFE.

The lawyer quoted Rubel as saying that he earns commissions from the investments.

“If one is able to make 100 investments, he qualifies to open an office and enjoys the post of CEO,” Rubel was quoted as saying.

“In this way, hundreds of people are falling into traps of MTFE by investing money in the dream of becoming a millionaire overnight,” the lawyer wrote in his case.

Other than MTFE, thousands of people were cheated by investing in several other apps. Such apps allow people to invest until one day when it shut down, Islam told this correspondent.

Sabuj, Liton, and Eklas of Dasmari area in the city invested around Tk 20 lakh in the Ultima Wallet app, they received Tk 10,000 to Tk 20,000 a few times before the app shut down in June, the case description says.

When Sabuj Ali, a victim, filed a case with Boalia police station on June 26 the police arrested six people.

Before that, many people of the city and Godagari areas were cheated through the Muvi app, the case description says.

The Court Order

In the order, Md Ziaur Rahman, judge of Rajshahi’s Cyber Tribunal insisted on importance of the investigation and directed the OC of Rajpara Police Station, RMP to “immediately record” the FIR.

“Considering the seriousness of the crime and for fair investigation,” the court directed RMP’s Rajpara Police Station, CID, and PBI of Rajshahi to form a Joint Investigation Team consisting of Sub Inspectors or higher officials with knowledge of cyber issues.

The three-member team was also asked to jointly perform all legal duties of the Investigation Officer.

In the order, the judge observed that the court already dealt with several cases of Ponzi schemes before, and currently, another fraudster is at play using the same method.

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