June 30, 2007

First or last solution?

Bangladesh blogger reports that First Solution, a London based finance company has been accused of unethical business standards by a wide section of the British Bangladeshi Community. It cashed on the half a million strong British Bangladeshi community, who relied on it for sending money home or credit solutions.
Accusations and speculations against this company suggest, it may have encountered huge-losses in speculative currency trading.
Hope the accused company does not turn out to be the last solution for many.

Update: Its official. The New Nation reports:
First Solution Money Transfer, a London-based firm, owned by Fazal Mahmud, former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia’s political secretary Mosaddak Ali Falu’s business partner, has misappropriated remittances worth Tk 123 crore recently.
Update II: First Solution has a press release saying they were intentionally lynched by their competitor Bangla TV. One must say Bangla TV's coverage of the news seem far from fair journalism as they published personal informations before any police investigation. Please check the interesting discussions and updates in Drishtipat blog. A commenter predicts what happened and it sounds realistic:
It is common knowledge that Dr. Fazal Mahmood, Mr. Mahi and Channel S had a close relationship with Falu and gang. Channel S has been representing NTV in the UK for quite sometime.

It is possible that Falu was using First solution to launder money from Bangladesh to the UK and was paying higher than official rates in Takas back home.

FS was depositing UK Sterlings into Falu nominated UK accounts and Falu was supplying takas in Bangladesh. Falu didn’t mind paying a premium as he had endless supply of takas.

But everything changed with Falu’s arrest. The taka supply dried up and FS was not able to deliver money at the higher rate which it promised to it’s customers.
Thrilling stuff!

Update III: First Solutions protester group has called a protest rally tomorrow Sunday 8th July 2007) at Altab Ali Park, White Chapel Road, opposite Brick Lane, London. Bangla TV airs protests against First Solutions by Bangladeshi diaspora in England and in Italy.

Update IV: Thanks to a commenter (AB) we have the link of Last Solution blog, which was started by a person who lost money on First Solution. This blog has the latest news, video and information on First Solution.

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