Bangladesh-Corruption: Mollah's fortune

An employee of Bangladesh's biggest state-owned gas company who earned a mere 100 dollars a month allegedly used his position to pocket a colossal 145-million dollars in bribes over 12 years.

"It is a theft of unimaginable-scale," said the head of the government's anti-corruption body, Colonel Hasan.

Investigators, however, said they were "astonished" by the scale of internal profiteering in a company supposed to be serving a country where 40 percent of the 144 million population live on less than a dollar a day.

"Almost everyone in the company is a millionaire. They made millions by depriving the country's millions of poor people," Hasan said.

He identified the culprit as Abdul Kader Mollah, a former sales assistant with the Titas Gas Distribution Company who was paid just 100 dollars a month but who allegedly made illicit cash by undercharging thousands of factories.

Mollah's fortune -- now estimated by authorities at more than 300 million dollars -- was revealed after the military-backed government launched an investigation into the company last year as part of a nationwide anti-graft drive.

But Mollah, who is under-investigation and has not yet been arrested, hit back at the allegations by taking out a quarter-page advertisement Tuesday in at least 11 top newspapers. He insisted he was only worth 66 million dollars, and that he made the money through hard work -- including setting up textile plants.

Last week authorities said at least 80 percent of Titas' 2,800 workers had made millions of dollars by under-charging in exchange for bribes, although 127 workers have so far agreed to hand back cash to the state.

Titas is the country's largest state-owned gas distributor with an 80 percent market share in Bangladesh, ranked as one of the most corrupt nations on earth.

Last year Titas made a profit of US$37 million on sales of US$557 million.

The Ittefaq newspaper meanwhile ran a front page story on three more multi-millionaire gas workers -- including a former receptionist who now allegedly owns an apartment complex and plots of land in posh Dhaka districts.

Via AFP