CID to file charges over $97m laundering against Salman F Rahman

Beximco Group Vice Chairman Salman F Rahman

The Criminal Investigation Department’s (CID) Financial Crime Unit has received approval to submit charge sheets in 17 cases against Beximco Group Vice Chairman Salman F Rahman and several others for allegedly laundering around $97 million between 2020 and 2024.

Investigators say Salman F Rahman, Beximco Group Chairman ASF Rahman, and several associates used 17 corporate entities to move money abroad under the guise of foreign trade. The companies involved include Adventure Garments, Apollo Apparels, Autumn Loop Apparels, Bextex Garments, Cosmopolitan Apparels, Cozy Apparels, Esses Fashion International Knitwear and Apparels, Kanchpur Apparels, Midwest Garments, Peerless Garments, Pink Maker Garments, Platinum Garments, Skynet Apparels, Springful Apparels, Urban Fashions, and Winter Spring Garments Limited.

The investigation found that these firms opened Letters of Credit or export contracts through Janata Bank’s Motijheel branch in Dhaka but failed to repatriate the proceeds. Instead, funds were allegedly funneled abroad via RR Global Trading in Dubai — owned by Ahmed Shayan Fazlur Rahman, son of Salman F Rahman, and Ahmed Shahriar Rahman, son of ASF Rahman.

The laundered money is reported to have been transferred to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the UK, the USA, Ireland, and other countries, in what authorities describe as trade-based money laundering.

Following these findings, the CID filed the 17 money laundering cases at Motijheel Police Station on 17 and 18 September 2024 under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012. Several properties of the accused have already been seized under court orders, including 2,000 decimals of land with structures in Dohar, Dhaka, a 6,189.54-square-foot flat in The Envoy Building, Gulshan, and a 2,713-square-foot triplex flat at Plot 31, Road 698/A, Gulshan. Multiple bank accounts have been frozen and travel bans imposed.

The total estimated value of the seized assets is between Tk600–700 crore. The cases list 28 individuals and 19 entities, including ASF Rahman, Salman F Rahman, Ahmed Shayan Fazlur Rahman, and Ahmed Shahriar Rahman. Salman F Rahman, currently in jail, has already been shown arrested in these cases. CID also arrested Wasiur Rahman, managing director and shareholder of Autumn Loop Apparels Ltd, in July 2025.