Arrest warrants against Finance Advisor Salehuddin Ahmed and Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur have been suspended. This information was given by Mushfiqul Fazal Ansari, the Bangladeshi ambassador to America. He gave this information in a post given on his verified Facebook on Saturday.
Earlier a US court has issued ‘bench warrants for the arrest’ of Salehuddin Ahmed, finance adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh, and Ahsan H Mansoor, governor of the central bank, in a 2006 case. The order was issued on Thursday (October 24).
This appeal was filed by Smith Cogeneration (Bangladesh) to take their deposition regarding recovery of $31.9 million fine fromBangladesh government immediately filed an appeal in response to the US company’s action.
The US District Judge Carl J Nicholls ordered the US Marshals Service to “arrest and bring to court” Ahmed and Mansoor, allowing Smith Cogeneration (Bangladesh)’s appeal.
The company described Ahmed and Mansoor as “two senior leaders” of Bangladesh’s economy and said their depositions were required as part of a decades-long effort to collect arbitration fines.
The case was filed in 2006. This is the first time that Bangladesh filed an appeal in the DC court. In that appeal, filed Thursday afternoon, Bangladesh contended that Judge Nichols had no jurisdiction to order the arrest of Ahmed and Mansoor.
Bangladesh wrote in its appeal, “Furthermore, the two individuals against whom the bench warrants were issued, who are both high-level Bangladeshi diplomats and International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials, are immune from criminal and civil proceedings in the United States.”
Bangladesh contends that Judge Nichols’ immediate dismissal of the court’s jurisdiction and bench warrant is not enforceable under this appeal.
Media contacted Ahmed and Mansoor about the L360 report. However, none of them responded to a request for comment on the matter. The media also contacted Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam. He also declined to comment.
Apart from this, the media did not get any response from Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Tauhid Hossain, Charge d’Affaires of Bangladesh Embassy in Washington DM Salauddin and Director General (North America) Khandaker Masudul Alam of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Later, when contacted with PDB, two top officials of the Power Development Board said that they were not aware of this.
In Wednesday’s motion, Smith Cogeneration said Ahmed was also scheduled to appear on Wednesday to testify under the court order that Mansour was subpoenaed. However, they were not seen in court.
“Without this court’s order, the government of Bangladesh will continue to ignore the court’s authority and will not accept or respond to deposition notices,” Smith Cogeneration said in its motion.
Both Ahmed and Mansoor were in Washington last week to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group.
Smith Cogeneration said the visit may be their only chance to take a deposition.
Smith Cogeneration also said the company had been fighting for years to collect the arbitration fines since an International Chamber of Commerce tribunal in London issued the order in 2002 and 2003.
This dispute started in 1997. Smith Cogeneration then signed a power purchase agreement with the Bangladesh government and the Power Development Board to build a floating power project in the northern part of the country.
According to a report by Law360, in a 2006 ‘enforcement petition’, Smith Cogeneration told a US DC court that the Bangladesh government had agreed to grant their company all necessary approvals to complete the project.
However, Smith Cogeneration claims that the Bangladesh government canceled the project in 1999 and did not give the necessary approvals to the company. A $1.5 million ‘performance bond’ guarantee was then contracted, financed by Smith Cogeneration.
According to court documents, the company initiated arbitration at the ICC tribunal later that year and the tribunal later ordered the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) to pay more than $13.5 million. The board was then forced to pay an additional $39,000 and the PDB and Bangladesh government were obligated to pay $222,000.
A D.C. federal judge upheld the damages in 2007, and in May the court modified its final ruling at Smith Cogeneration’s request. Counsel for Smith Cogeneration told Law360 that Smith Cogeneration still owes more than $31 million to Bangladesh, including interest and other costs.
The ambassador Mushfiqul Fazal Ansarisaid that in 1999, Smith Cogeneration filed a lawsuit in the US court demanding compensation due to the cancellation of a contract by the Awami League government. In 1997, Smith Cogeneration signed a power purchase agreement with the then government of Bangladesh and the government granted permission to build a barge-mounted power plant in the northern part of the country. After nearly 25 years in the case, the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court issued a ruling that largely excluded jurisdiction, which was stayed by the court on Friday. Although the matter has ended temporarily.
In the post, the ambassador of Bangladesh appointed to America also said that the responsibility of the looter government can’t be taken by this interim government formed through a bloody revolution. It is important to take action against the concealers without bringing the matter to the attention of the present government.
Before this, according to the report of American-based media Law-360, US power company Smith Cogeneration filed a lawsuit seeking compensation of $31.9 million from Bangladesh. Arrest warrants were issued against Finance Advisor Salehuddin Ahmed and Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansoor, citing two top leaders of Bangladesh’s economy.
The dispute started in 1997 when Smith Cogeneration signed a power purchase agreement with the Bangladesh government. The then Awami government canceled this project in 1999. Later that year the company filed a complaint with the ICC Tribunal.
