Evaly CEO Rassel planned to declare company bankrupt: RAB

Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel and his wife and the ecommerce chair Shamima Nasrin after a media conference at RAB headquarters on 17 September 2021Prothom Alo

The current debts of ecommerce platform Evaly, owed to the customers and suppliers, has grown to Tk 10 billion (1,000 crore) which was Tk 4.03 billion in February this year, the platform’s chief executive officer (CEO) Mohammad Rassel told Rapid Action Battalion.

Rassel could not say how he would pay the debt. Instead, he planned to declare Evaly as bankrupt, RAB said. RAB’s legal and media wing director Commander Khandaker Al Moin was addressing a media conference at the force’s headquarters on Friday.

Earlier, on Thursday, a team of RAB arrested Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel and the company’s chairman and his wife Shamima Nasrin from their residence in the capital’s Mohammadpur in a case filed for fraudulence and misappropriation of money. Later, the couple was taken to RAB headquarters for interrogation.

Al Moin told the media conference that Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin invested very little money. Their business strategy was to pay the debts of older customers by “transferring the debt” to the newer customers. Rassel told RAB that he knowingly adopted this negative business strategy, he added.

The RAB official further said the arrested persons said their plan was to “create a brand value” of Evaly first and then sell the platform with all the debt to any international company. They visited several for this purpose. Among other plans, they wanted to shift the debt to different companies in the name selling the online platform’s shares. For this they wanted to get involved with share market once Evaly completed three years.

RAB’s legal and media wing director also said Rassel adopted the technique of pleading for time extension to pay the debt. He wanted to announce the e-commerce platform bankrupt as the last measure if he failed to pay the debt.

After the media conference, Rasel and his wife Shamima were taken to Gulshan police station and from there to court.

Earlier, on Wednesday night, one of the Evaly’s customers, Arif Baker, filed a case against the ecommerce CEO Mohammad Rassel and his wife and chairman Shamima Nasrin with the capital’s Gulshan police station on charges of fraudulence and embezzlement.

Quoting the case statements, Gulshan police said customer Arif Baker and his friends gave some orders to the company after being attracted by their dazzling advertisements.

Arif Baker paid Tk 310,597 for various products from 29 May to 16 June through online banking and using a card of a bank. The company promised to repay in full in case it failed to deliver the products in seven to 45 days.

Lastly, he contacted Evaly’s customer care centre on 5 September and failed to receive the products. Before that, the firm delayed the delivery of the products as many times as he contacted with them.

According to the complaint, three people including Arif Baker went to Evaly’s office on Dhanmondi road no. 14 on 9 September to meet the company’s CEO Mohammad Rassel but they were barred.

After that, Arif Baker and their friends tried to talk to the company’s representatives at Evaly’s office but the later shouted at them.

At one point, Mohammad Rassel threatened then with life from his office and refused to return their money. At that time, Evaly chairman also came and refused to delivery their products and return the money. She also threatened and misbehaved with them.

The plaintiff, in the complaint, stated Evaly cheated innumerable customers like him in the name of selling products. Evaly company has reportedly misappropriated Tk 7-8 billion (700-800 crore).