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Wealthy Bangladeshi, family get jail

One of Bangladesh's richest men, his wife and three sons were sentenced in absentia yesterday to five years each in jail as part of a government anti-corruption drive, officials said.

Property tycoon Ahmed Akbar Sobhan and his close family were convicted by a special anti-graft court of evading taxes worth 8.22 million taka (US$1.2 million), state prosecutor Shamim Ahsan said

Sobhan is the chairman of the Bashundhara Group, which owns a shopping mall in Dhaka reputed to be the biggest in South Asia. The company also owns two residential towns and cement, paper and steel mills.

They were also sentenced to three years each in jail, to be served concurrently, for providing false wealth statements, he said.

"The judge also ordered confiscation of property worth 220 million taka of Bashundhara Industrial Complex, which the Sobhan family owns. They are also fined 8.3 million taka," he said.

An accountant whose firm advised Sobhan on tax matters was also sentenced to three years in jail, he said.

Sobhan and his family have been out of the country since authorities listed him as one of the country's top 50 corrupt people.
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