Arrest Warrants Issued for Foodpanda MD and 4 Others Over Alleged Embezzlement of Tk 3.8 Crore

A Dhaka court has issued arrest warrants against five individuals, including Syed Amberreen Reza, Managing Director of Foodpanda Bangladesh Limited, in two separate cases filed on charges of fraud, forgery, and embezzlement.

On Wednesday (September 23), Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jashita Islam issued the order following a hearing.

The other accused facing arrest warrants are Co-founder and Managing Director Syed Amberreen Reza (40), Co-founder and Director Zubair Siddiqui (46), Pandamart Director Md. Tabrez Khan (40), Head of Category Dilara Faruque (45), and Senior Manager Mohammad Sajedul Haque (42).

Plaintiff's lawyer Kazi Mofizul Islam confirmed the matter, stating that following the court's directive, the Gulshan police station investigated the cases and submitted reports. The investigation reports confirmed the initial truth of the allegations brought against the accused. Subsequently, the court accepted the reports and issued the arrest warrants.

According to case documents, Shihab Mahmud Bashir, the proprietor of "Protein and Perishable" (PNP), filed the cases against the accused on July 3 of last year.

According to the plaintiff's statement, he started supplying local and imported fruits and vegetables under an agreement with Pandamart, a sister concern of Foodpanda, on June 23, 2022. While payments were made regularly at the beginning, the accused later resorted to forgery. Instead of paying for orders worth Tk 1 lakh, negligible amounts ranging from Tk 1 to Tk 100 were deposited into the bank. Furthermore, large sums of money were allegedly withheld under the pretext of returning products by using forged signatures of individuals and creating fake "Return to Vendor" (RTV) slips at multiple locations on the same day.

Through these alleged fraudulent activities, the Foodpanda officials misappropriated approximately Tk 3.8 crore, according to the lawsuit.