Jamuna Group to make decision on Evaly after audit

Jamuna Group, one of the country’s largest conglomerates, will announce their decision on their proposed investment in Evaly after conducting an audit of the e-commerce platform.

Jamuna Group Director for Marketing, Sales and Operations Mohammed Alamgir Alamsaid on Friday that the audit will determine the debts of Evaly to its customers and suppliers.

He also said that as the audit has not been completed yet and the final report has not yet reached Jamuna Group, they are not ready to issue an official statement regarding their investment with Evaly.

“Once the audit is completed, the group will disclose its decision on investment and modus operandi to the media,” he added.

On July 27, Evaly announced that the Jamuna Group would invest Tk 1,000 crore in Evaly, with an initial disbursement of Tk 200 crore.

Evaly Managing Director Mohammad Russell made the announcement after claiming that the e-commerce platform has already finalised an agreement with the conglomerate in this regard.

“This investment of Jamuna is part of the ongoing investment, and they have the opportunity to invest in the next step as well. This investment will be spent on the future development of Evaly and increasing the scope of business,” he added.

In August, financial statement submitted by Evaly to the Ministry of Commerce showed that the platform had a liability of Tk 542.9 crore to its customers and merchants.

Previously, a Dhaka court barred Evaly’s MD Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin, the company’s chairman, from travelling abroad amid an ongoing investigation into embezzlement charges against them.

The ACC officials on July 8 sent a letter to the Special Branch of police to ask immigration police to impose a travel ban against Rassel and Shamima over alleged embezzlement of Tk 338 crore.

Evaly offices remain closed since the ACC began investigation into the charges. Customers claimed no one was answering the hotlines.

The commission on July 8 formed a two-member probe panel after receiving a Bangladesh Bank report, which says Evaly accepted Tk 214 crore in advance payment from customers and owed the merchants an additional Tk 190 crore. This totaled Tk 404 crore to be in Evaly’s possession, but this non-investing e-commerce company has only Tk 65.18 worth of assets.

The central bank also expressed concern about the amount of Evaly’s liability to customers and merchants is likely to be higher as the company authorities did not allow the inspection team access their replica database.

Evaly offers consumers all sorts of lucrative deals, with ‘cash back’ offers going up to 100 to 150 per cent. Thousands of consumers were lured in by these offers. Few even made profits, while most are still waiting to see the big bucks.