RCC mayor’s documents faked for $78,893 fraud

Unknown fraudsters used fake documents of Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) and its mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton to sign a $10.12 million firefighting truck procurement deal with a Korean company.

Shinshin Global Company Limited, believing that it was communicating with RCC officials, sent $78,893 to bank accounts in Philippines and the UK to close the deal.

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According to the fake deal, RCC would procure the trucks from the company for $10.12 million.

The information was revealed by the mayor, also a presidium member of Awami League, yesterday during a press conference at Rajshahi Nagar Bhaban.

"We're completely unaware of the deal. Even we have no authority to sign such a deal with a foreign company," Liton said.

He said the corporation has lodged a general diary with Boalia Police Station and informed the cybercrime unit of police, along with the government high-ups.

The story started developing from December last year, when a top official of the Korean company called RCC engineering adviser Md Ashraful Haque to enquire about the procurement of eight firefighting trucks.

After consulting with the mayor, Haque informed the Korean official that they're unaware of the procurement.

The Korean company then sent nine documents which showed that company was communicating with a fake email address that used the mayor's name.

The mails showed that the fraudsters asked the Koreans to send $30,000 to bank account in Philippines and $48,893 to one in the UK.

The mayor said the embarrassing part for him is that the Korean company submitted an allegation to the Bangladesh embassy in Seoul against him.

"We aren't clear yet whether the Korean company officials are involved or they were swindled by a third party, but we can guess they faced international frauds," the mayor said.

He also said internal findings have revealed that the communications were carried out from Africa.