Bangladeshi 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus delivers a lecture in San Juan de Ulua, Veracruz state, Mexico on July 19, 2013. Yunus is in Mexico to deliver lectures and promote social enterprises. AFP PHOTO/ Koral CARBALLO (Photo credit should read KORAL CARBALLO/AFP/Getty Images)
Muhammad Yunus, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for having founded a bank to combat hunger and poverty in Bangladesh, is now accused of tax evasion by the authorities of his country.
Dhaka, Jul 23 (EFE).- The Supreme Court of Bangladesh ordered this Sunday the Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to pay 120 million taka (more than 1 million dollars) in taxes, in the latest in a series of legal actions against the award-winning economist by the authorities of the Asian country.
The Supreme Court today rejected Yunus’s appeal against an order from a lower court, Bangladesh’s Attorney General Abu Mohammad Amin Uddin told the media, agreeing with tax officials who demanded taxes from several donations he made to three charitable trusts between the financial years 2011-12 and 2013-14.
Consulted by EFE, Yunus’ lawyer, Abdullah Al Mamun, was displeased with the order and reported that his client can still appeal it, although the same judges would be in charge of reviewing it.
“Yunus made the donations with his own income. Therefore, we believe that this order will have a social impact. Now people will be discouraged from donating,” lamented Al Mamun.
This is the latest legal move against Yunus by the Bangladeshi authorities since he was ousted from his post as managing director of microcredit firm Grameen Bank in 2011.
Last May, the Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a lawsuit against Yunus and 12 others for misappropriating more than 250 million taka (about $2.35 million) from a company’s worker welfare fund.
The prominent economist was recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for having founded a bank to combat hunger and poverty in Bangladesh by providing loans to low-income people who wanted to start a business, although he was removed from it at the request of the Government, an order that Yunus appealed without success.
Bangladeshi authorities have focused attention on Yunus since a documentary was aired in 2010 exposing alleged illegal fund transfers between two Grameen Group entities.
In addition, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, blames the economist for allegedly influencing the World Bank so that this entity canceled the funds for the construction of a bridge mega-project. EFE
2023-07-23 16:02:05
#Nobel #Peace #Prize #winner #fined #million #dollars #alleged #tax #evasion
