AKM Saiful Majid, the current chairman of Grameen Bank's board of directors, gave the keynote address at a press conference on Saturday. The Yunus Centre, a think tank devoted to advancing Prof. Md. Yunus's theories on combating poverty, has addressed concerns brought up during the event.

This came after a statement released on Thursday and signed by Anju Ara Begum, the head of the media cell, in response to a press conference that Md. Yunus and others had earlier in the day at Grameen Telecom Bhaban, the location of the eight social enterprises that GB is alleged to have forcibly taken over. The main disagreement between GB and the social businesses arose from the former's inability to continue exercising certain powers that were given to it at the time the social enterprises were established.

Managing director of Grameen Telecom Nazmul Islam disclosed during the Telecom Bhaban news conference that the people claiming to speak for Grameen Bank had used the 1995/96 fundamental papers as justification for appointing new directors and chairman for Grameen Telecom and Grameen Kalyan.

Islam, however, maintained that this assertion was false because Grameen Kalyan is an autonomous organization and the pertinent paragraphs were changed after 2009.

In a statement released on Thursday, Grameen Bank stated that this was "false, fabricated, misleading, and deliberate." The appointment of a chairman and directors for seven of the organizations was accepted by the Grameen Bank board, according to Prof. Majid on Saturday. "These actions fully comply with the rules of Grameen Bank-created organizations as well as the laws of the country," he added.

In response, Yunus Center has now provided information on the occasion and method of bringing about the modifications to the articles of association. It stated:

"Under Section 28 of the Companies Act, 1994, Grameen Kalyan and Grameen Telecom were established as not-for-profit organizations with independent legal and accounting identities. He has served in the capacity of chairman of Grameen Kalyan and Grameen Telecom from their founding. According to their articles of association from the outset, Grameen Bank was able to designate the chairman and a few other board members.

"After considering the whole situation, in the Third Extra General Meeting of Grameen Kalyan (held on May 8, 2010), Article 48 and Article 32 (iii) of the Articles of Association of Grameen Kalyan were amended, and this was notified to the Ministry of Commerce on May 25, 2011." This was done to facilitate the management of the two institutions in accordance with Section 20 of the Companies Act.

Likewise, Article 51 and Article 35 (iii) of the Grameen Telecom Articles of Association were modified during the organization's second extra general meeting, which took place on July 19, 2009. For these two entities, Grameen Bank is no longer able to propose candidates for chairman or board members. Nominated representatives of Grameen Bank attended the EGM when this decision was made, and the bank also signed the resolution on behalf of itself through previously nominated directors.

"Grameen Bank is not a party to these institutions and does not own any shares in them, as stated in the firms' articles of association. Given that the firms' articles of organization have been modified or revised by the decisions of extra general meetings and company legislation, Grameen Bank is not legally permitted to propose the chairman of these two businesses at board meetings.
It should be noted that the aforementioned articles are the same ones that Grameen Bank highlighted in its statement on Thursday and the ones that Abdullah Al Mamun, Grameen Telecom's legal counsel, said were altered on Thursday.

The most severe accusation of all was made at the GB news conference when it was claimed that during an examination of Grameen Bank's whole accounts beginning in 1983, they had discovered evidence of money laundering at the bank.

"Grameen Bank as always has been audited annually by country's renowned auditors such as Rahman Rahman Haque, Hoda Vasi Chowdhury & Co., Eknabeen, A. Kashem & Company," said the Yunus Center in response to this. They made no mention of any financial issues that this organization may have had.Furthermore, neither the Bangladesh Bank inspection team nor the government-appointed committee or commission discovered any such anomalies.

Additionally, it made note of the fact that the government had consistently picked esteemed members of society to head the Grameen Bank Board, and that no such allegations—which the statement claimed were not only absurd and defamatory but also wholly untrue and without basis—had ever been made.

It was claimed at the GB news conference that Grameen Bank funds had been used to build Telecom Bhaban "as well as everything else." The claim was characterized as driven and unfounded by Yunus Center. It said, "No telecom building or any other establishment or any institution with money from Grameen Bank."

A significant accusation made during the press conference was that Grameen Bank gave Grameen Telecom a "grant" of Tk 24 crore.

In response, Yunus Center stated that Grameen Telecom was given Tk 19 lakh in funding by the Norwegian Embassy under the NORAD Fund at the time of its founding. In addition, a contract was inked to accept loans from Grameen Bank's Social Advancement Fund (SAF) up to Tk 30 crore at an interest rate of 11%. A Tk 24.77 crore loan was taken out between 1995 and 1997 in accordance with the aforementioned credit arrangement.

"In 1997, due to a board decision at Grameen Bank, the SAF loan agreement was converted to a loan agreement under the name of Grameen Kalyan." For equity investments, Tk 53,25,62,941, or 42.65% of the total investment, is the loan amount obtained from Grameen Kalyan. To assist Grameen Kalyan with this investment, Grameen Telecom has given Tk 2,353 crore. Furthermore, it stated that Palliphone has been paying Tk 1.12 crore (less or more) to Grameen Bank each month since December 2023, totaling Tk 468 crore.

According to Yunus Center, there is no longer any possibility of payment to Grameen Bank due to the transfer of the loan arrangement to Grameen Kalyan.

The claim that Dr. Yunus stole Tk 447 crore from Grameen Bank in order to start Grameen Kalyan was another grave accusation.

In its reply, Yunus Center stated that Tk 447 crore had been recorded from Grameen Bank in Grameen Kalyan's own books of accounts to support accounting issues in giving 2% of the funds donated by donor organizations to Grameen Kalyan for the establishment of the fund and the execution of the fund's various programs. The statement read, "But in actuality, no banking transaction or any financial transaction took place, as shown in the Grameen Bank and Kalyan accounts." Prof. Majid also made the grave accusation that Dr. Yunus had deleted or destroyed a number of significant papers from Grameen Bank's records between 1990 and 1999.

Once more, Yunus Center noted in its answer that the nation's most well-known auditors, Rahman Rahman Haque, Hoda Vasi Chowdhury & Co., Eknabeen, A. Kashem & Company, always conducted an annual audit of Grameen Bank. They have never said that none of the organization's documentation were lost or unavailable. The government-appointed committee and the Bangladesh Bank inspection team didn't either. Not even the Grameen Bank Commission, established after to Yunus's departure from the Bank, lodged a complaint on this matter.

"When he left Grameen Bank thirteen years ago, Prof. Yunus duly handed over his responsibilities," the statement said. Even though Prof. Yunus never claimed to be the bank's owner, the Yunus Center statement addressed Grameen Bank's need to clarify this. He has consistently insisted that none of the organizations he founded, including Grameen Bank, are his property.

However, it also made clear that Grameen Bank is not the owner of the social businesses it is attempting to "take back."

"Notably, the firms he founded—aside from Grameen Bank—are incorporated under Section 28 of the firms Act of 1994 and are completely ownership-free. They are not owned by Prof. Yunus, any board members, or Grameen Bank. 

They are not owned. The members who are sponsoring these companies did so voluntarily. None of these nonprofit organizations are owned by Grameen Bank, according to Yunus Center.

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