A Dhaka court placed controversial social media platform ringID Director Saiful Islam on a two-day remand in a case filed against him with Vatara Police Station under the Digital Security Act.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Sadbir Yasir Ahsan Chowdhury passed the order as police produced Saiful before the court and CID sub-inspector as well as the investigating officer Sohel Rana pleaded for a five-day remand in the case.
Earlier on September 30, a case was filed against 15 persons including Saiful Islam with Vatara thana under the Digital Security Act for embezzling money through ringID platform.
Law enforcers arrested Saiful Islam from city's Gulshan area on October 1.
Police said that ringID has illegally collected Tk 2.12 billion (Tk 212.45 crore) from around 120,000 people in just three months alluring them of a handsome monthly return.
The platform amassed the money in the name of investment in its Community Jobs sector in May, June and July in the running year and embezzled a large portion of the amount, said Rezaul Masud, special superintendent of police at the Cyber Police Centre (CPC) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
The total amount of money the online site illegally collected and embezzled since its launch in July 2015 could not be obtained.
The authorities of the platform circulated advertisements on their social media accounts and other ways, stating that if anybody would invest Tk 12,000 to 22,000 in the Community Jobs sector, he or she would be paid Tk 7,500 to 15,000 every month as income.
What they made people understand about the Community Jobs sector was local and foreign advertisements of different products and others. What the investors would have to do was seeing and clicking on the advertisements for a few minutes every day.
Ring ID was first launched as a social media platform, but later it launched different services, including Foreign Investment and Community Jobs. The authorities of the site began to collect money from people in the name of investment in the sectors which was a trick to emblaze money, said the CID.
Being allured, a large number of people from different parts of the country began paying money of various amounts as investments. More than 120,000 people invested in the platform. The social media platform has around 20 million users.
The authorities of the online platform also collected money in the name of donation during the nationwide lockdown enforced for the Covid-19 pandemic. They embezzled huge money from customers luring them on big discount offers.
Being deceived, a victim lodged a case mentioning names of 10 owners and executives and 10 to 15 unknown others with Vatara Police Station on September 30. Following the filing of the case, the Cyber Police Centre (CPC) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested Saiful Islam. The CPC already sent a letter to Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) requesting it to carry out an investigation.
As per the request, the BFIU began investing in the matter. The CPC also sent a letter to Bangladesh Bank (BB) requesting it to freeze all the accounts of the platform to prevent money laundering.
The CPC said several cases were already filed against the authorities of the Ring ID with various police stations of the country. Rezaul Masud, special superintendent CPC, said if any victim wanted to file case against the onlin.
