Former army chief Harun among 19 sentenced to prison, Tk 4,515 crore fine!

Dhaka, January 15, 2025: The court has sentenced 19 people to 12 years in prison in a case of embezzlement of funds from multi-level marketing (MLM) company Destiny's Tree Plantation Limited. Among them, Destiny Group's Managing Director (MD) Rafiqul Amin, company president former army chief M Harun-or-Rashid and 19 others have also been given a fine of Tk 4,515 crore.

Judge Rabiul Alam of Dhaka Special Judge's Court-4 gave the verdict on Wednesday. The other 17 people sentenced to prison are Destiny Chairman Mohammad Hossain, Mohammad Gofranul Haque, Mohammad Saeed-ur-Rahman, Mezbah Uddin, Syed Sajjad Hossain, Irfan Ahmed, Farah Diba, Jamshed Ara Chowdhury, Sheikh Taiebur Rahman, Nepal Chandra Biswas, Jasim Uddin, Zakir Hossain, SM Ahsanul Kabir, Zubair Sohel, Mosaddek Ali, Abdul Mannan, and Abul Kalam Azad.

Destiny Tree Plantation Limited is accused of embezzling and laundering Tk 4,119.42 crore from investors between 2008 and 2012. More than 1.75 million investors were affected by this embezzlement.

Rafiqul Amin, Mohammad Hossain, and M Harun-ur-Rashid are currently in prison, while the others are absconding. The court has issued arrest warrants against them.

Public Prosecutor Mahmud Hossain Jahangir handled the case on behalf of the ACC.