Bangladesh Army General Waker-uz-Zaman shuts down Bangladesh Army’s shell companies, bdmilitary.com and defseca.com, after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster.
Both the companies are based in overseas and have been in use to siphon money from Bangladesh military’s businesses to overseas slash funds.
General Waker-uz-Zaman’s father-in-law, General Rahman, served as the Chief of Army Staff of the Bangladesh Army from 24 December 1997 to 23 December 2000; he was Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s uncle. Waker’s wife is Hasina’s cousin. This is why Mr Waker lets Hasina go off the judicial prosecution in Bangladesh and let her fly to India.
From the standpoint of conpany principals, General Waker-uz-Zaman is the director and beneficiary of bdmilitary.com’s revenue and other military officers remain as shareholders, and Ashiqur Rahman remains a partner who lives overseas.
An offshore company is established outside Bangladesh, where Ashiqur Rahman’s permanent residence is located. The Bangladesh army maintains an offshore banking and financial arrangement with Ashiqur Rahman.
This is a matter of accountability and maintaining the military’s integrity and the public trust. It also demonstrates that the army is corrupt and aligned with political parties.
This means the Bangladesh army is the buyer and supplier; both procurement process through the shell companies bdmilitary.com and defseca.com despite having Ministry of Defense’s oversight and power over Director General Defense Procurement. Ashiqur Rahman has direct connections with both the current and previous army chiefs.
A shell company is a corporation without active business operations or significant assets. These types of corporations are not necessarily illegal, but they are sometimes used illegitimately, such as to disguise business ownership from law enforcement or the public.
Switzerland has long had a reputation as one of the best offshore banks for hiding money. Swiss law forbids bankers from disclosing any information about your account without your consent.
Nowadays, Malaysia, Singapore, the UAE, South Africa and the UK offer better opportunities to hide money in real estate, banks, and stocks for Bangladeshi nationals.
The Corruption Perceptions Index is the leading global indicator of public sector corruption. Bangladesh‘s score is 24 this year, a change of -1 since last year, meaning it ranks 149 out of 180 countries.
The issue of corruption among military generals in Bangladesh is complex and multifaceted.
While there have been many instances of corruption, it’s important to note that the entire military leadership can be uniformly characterized as corrupt in Bangladesh.
General Aziz was the Army Chief and a 4-star general in the Bangladesh army. His brothers are convicted murderers and gangsters, but Aziz helped them to escape to Hungary and Thailand.
Bangladesh’s military is smaller and poorly equipped than the Myanmar military or military with similar $4.1 billion defense budget for several reasons.
Bangladesh’s defense budget has been relatively good compared to other economy with similar GDP. Around 1.4% of its GDP has gone to corrupt practices in recent years through its shell companies, bdmilitary.com and defseca.com.
Bangladesh has a lower potential recruit pool and a more limited training area for military training and operations than well equipped neighbours.
Much of Bangladesh’s military resources are dedicated to maintaining UN Peacekeeping missions rather than building a large conventional force.
Bangladesh has been involved in significant conflict with Myanmar since its independence but remains an incompetent force and has failed to deter Myanmar’s aggression.
Bangladesh’s army remains relatively small and less advanced due to corruption, incompetence, and a focus on UN Peacekeeping missions rather than external force projection. This creates a significant capability gap compared to Myanmar’s larger, battle-hardened military.
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