Bangladesh High Court Grants Destiny Group MD Rafiqul Amin One Year Bail in Money Laundering Case

Bangladesh's High Court on March 6, 2024 granted one year of bail to Mohammad Rafiqul Amin, managing director of Destiny Group, in a money laundering case in which a lower court had sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

A High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Kazi Ebadoth Hossain granted the bail after hearing an appeal Amin filed challenging the trial court verdict. A lawyer for the Anti-Corruption Commission said the commission would be told of the order so it could move an appeal against the bail before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

On May 12, 2022, Dhaka's Special Judge's Court-4 sentenced all 46 accused in the case, including Amin and Destiny-2000 president Lt Gen (retd) Harun-Ar-Rashid, to prison terms over funds collected through Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd. Amin received 12 years and Harun-Ar-Rashid four years. Harun-Ar-Rashid had already secured bail from the High Court in 2023.

Destiny-2000 Ltd, founded in Dhaka in 2000, was once one of Bangladesh's largest multilevel marketing organizations before its operations were halted in 2012 amid embezzlement and money laundering cases brought by the Anti-Corruption Commission.