Audit firm finds no trace of Evaly’s huge amount of money

Evaly, a controversial e-commerce platform in the country, had amassed a huge amount of money in cash through fraudulence but no trace of the money has been found till now, according to findings of an audit firm.

Hoda Vasi Chowdhury (HVC), one of the leading and oldest professional services firms in Bangladesh, disclosed it in an audit report recently.

It is a matter of investigation of the government’s respective agencies whether the money has been smuggled or laundered, said the report.

The HVC has prepared the audit report in line with the directives of the High Court and submitted it to the Evaly authorities.

Adequate information is needed to prepare a good audit report but the audit firm faced a lack of relevant data during its audit, said the report.

Following a case filed against the e-commerce platform by a victim, the law enforcers arrested Evaly’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mohammad Russel, and Chairman and his wife Shamima Narsin during a raid carried out at their house in the capital’s Mohammadpur area on September 16, last year.

The owners of Evaly were allegedly involved in the embezzlement of several hundred crores of taka.

One Arif Baker lodged the case with the Gulshan police station accusing the couple of stealing customers’ money and fraudulence.

Russel is now behind bars. However, his wife Shamima has been on bail since last April.

After sending Russel to jail, the court appointed a four-member board to oversee the activities of Evaly.

The audit has been done according to the wills of the new board and the board submitted the report to the respective court on September 22.

On October 18 last year, the High Court formed a five-member board, led by former justice Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik, to manage, control and assess the liabilities of Evaly.