The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

A special anti-graft court yesterday sentenced the fugitive boss of Orion Group, Obaedul Karim, to five years imprisonment for money laundering, taking his total prison term to 48 years.

The court, however, acquitted two co-accused of the case. Former Awami League lawmaker AHM Mustafa Kamal alias Lotus Kamal is one of the two exonerated.

Trying in absentia, Judge M Ashraf Hossain delivered the sentence, also fining Karim to pay Tk 2 crore or suffer another year behind bars.

It also ordered confiscation of the Orion Group chairman's property worth Tk 2 crore to the state coffer.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the money- laundering case with Gulshan police station in October last year, accusing them of siphoning off Tk 2 crore from the country, as a purge is underway in the interim period.

"The sentence comes into effect after his arrest or surrender to the court," said the court order.

Earlier on June 25, a special court sentenced the Orion Group chairman to 13 years rigorous imprisonment for amassing wealth illegally and concealing information about it.

Besides, on December 27 last year, another special court jailed Karim, also a major shareholder of the troubled private-sector Oriental Bank, for life for inter-branch debit-account fraud.