Bangladesh Central Bank assures DOJ it will provide bank, business records

The U.S. government may soon obtain the bank and business records it is seeking from Bangladesh in connection with a criminal case against six persons in a fake jobs scam.

Assistant U.S. attorney James Benedetto told the U.S. District Court for the NMI Friday that their request for the bank records of family members of some defendants in the case had reached the financial investigation unit of the Central Bank of Bangladesh.

Benedetto said the Central Bank of Bangladesh has assured that the U.S. government will be getting the records soon.

One of the suspects in the case, Muksedur Rahman, and his co-schemers allegedly instructed at least 12 victims to send payments to Rahman’s relatives and in-laws in Bangladesh.

Some of the payments were made in cash directly to a co-schemer of Rahman, and some were deposited directly into the accounts of his family members and in-laws.

A superseding indictment charged the defendants with 17 counts such as mail fraud, fraud in foreign labor contracting, and fraud and misuse of visas and permits. The U.S. government is seeking help from Bangladesh to obtain some records.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs has reportedly prepared a letter addressed to family members and relatives in Bangladesh of one of the suspects.

According to the minutes of Friday’s hearing, Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona inquired if these records will be received by July 24; Benedetto replied they were not sure as to the date and were hopeful it will be here in the next several weeks.

The prosecutor also disclosed that there were statements from witnesses in Bangladesh and the Diplomatic Security Service has agreed to interview witnesses at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka.

Benedetto said if those statements are as they expect them to be, then they will decide as to which of those witnesses they will bring to Saipan to testify at trial.

The jury trial will be on Aug. 15, 2017. Designated Judge John C. Coughenour will preside over the trial.

Benedetto also disclosed that the prosecution is planning to eliminate some counts in the indictment. Once he decides which counts to eliminate, he will inform the parties and file a redacted indictment with the court.

Attorney Robert T. Torres, counsel for defendant Muksedur Rahman, argued, among other things, that the U.S. government should provide certain dates soon as to when they will be paring down the indictment because they need to know what the charges are, in order to prepare.

Benedetto suggested giving the court and the parties a written update on July 24, which will include an update on the transcripts.

Benedetto said this report will advise the court as to what, if anything has come in, and what decisions the U.S. government has made about which counts to proceed on.

Manglona ordered the prosecution to file a status report on the issues raised by July 24. Torres agreed to this.