NEW DELHI: The story involving the ouster of Hasina and the installation of Yunus, who is close to both Hillary Clinton and George Soros, unfolded over the decades.
When former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, was interacting with leaders of 14 parties in a closed-door meeting at Ganabhaban, the official residence of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, on the evening of 24 May, she warned them and perhaps as a reminder to herself of a “conspiracy” that was in play to remove her.
The said conspiracy, sources who were part of her team said, was being orchestrated by a foreign country that had made it clear through a series of actions and statements that it was not happy with her coming back to power in the January 2024 elections.
During the interaction, which went on till night, she told them how the country’s representatives (a white man) had met her before the elections and stated that she would have a smooth re-election and a smoother run as PM if she allowed certain things to happen. These included the creation of “a Christian state like East Timor” by taking parts from Bangladesh (Chattogram) and Myanmar, with the first step being allowing them to build an airbase on Saint Martin Island in the Bay of Bengal.
According to sources, on that night, Hasina spoke about how she believed she would be toppled and might face the same consequences as her father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
All her concerns were proven right on Monday, less than three months after her forecast, as she had to abruptly leave Dhaka and fly to India after violent protests, led by students but backed by multiple actors, made it clear that if she stayed back, she would probably face the same end as her father—assassination.
Leaders of the Awami League and sources close to Hasina believe that officials at the State Department of the United States were the main protagonists behind Hasina’s removal. The fact that she decided to share the threat and offer by the US government outside her private circle on 24 May was, they say, a sign that she realised she was engaged in a steep battle to save the position that she had won after following the due electoral process.
Sources say that the appointment of banker and Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus as the new interim head of Bangladesh, who had a longstanding fraught relationship with Hasina, is not unexpected and only confirms the role of the State Department in this development, which has the potential to pull back Bangladesh’s economic and social progress significantly.
Sources said that the topic of Hasina attacking Yunus became more prominent after the Joe Biden administration came to power. Pressure, sources close to Hasina claimed, was put on Dhaka to stop trials against Yunus and cancel judicial proceedings against him regarding charges of tax fraud and money laundering.
The allegations against Yunus, who is a former US Fulbright scholar, led to the formation of a committee led by former Secretary Mamun Ur Rashid, called the “Grameen Bank Commission”. It was formed by Hasina on 16 May 2012 and submitted its interim report in January the following year.
Incidentally, this commission was formed after an earlier commission, the “Monwaruddin Commission” could not submit its report because of a lack of information.
The Sunday Guardian has accessed a copy of the said report by Rashid.
Significantly, when the government announced that it was forming the committee to look into the functioning of the bank, then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that the US government would not endorse any action by the Bangladesh government to “undermine Grameen Bank’s achievements.” This was in line with the statement made by Yunus during the hearing, who raised doubts about the Commission’s expertise on microcredit, suggesting that the government may want to portray Grameen Bank as poorly managed and in need of an overhaul.
Once the commission was formed, Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, came out in support of Yunus and Grameen Bank. Hillary Clinton visited Dhaka in May 2012 to express concerns about the bank’s future. Richard Branson and the French government also spoke against the commission, with Branson accusing the government of attempting to take control of Grameen Bank and undermine its ownership by the poor women of Bangladesh.
INVOLVEMENT OF HILLARY CLINTON
On 1 June 2017, Charles E. Grassley, Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, wrote an explosive letter to Rex W. Tillerson, then Secretary of State, in which he outlined how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (January 2009-February 2013 during the Barack Obama administration) pressured the government of Bangladesh, including Prime Minister Hasina, to terminate a corruption investigation into Yunus, who was, according to the letter, a significant donor to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).
The letter further stated that State Department officials threatened Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed, with an IRS audit if he did not attempt to get his mother to terminate the investigation. Tillerson’s letter stated that Hasina herself had confirmed that Hillary Clinton had called her in March 2011 and demanded Yunus be restored to his position as chairman of the Grameen Bank.
The letter, accessed by The Sunday Guardian, reveals how deeply the US State Department, the Clintons, and by extension Soros are involved in the running of the Grameen Bank and how close Yunus is to the State.
In his letter, Grassley, who is the Senator from Iowa and the longest-serving Republican in Congressional history, stated that “evidence of pay-to-play and special treatment reinforces the appearance that donations to the Clinton Foundation resulted in favorable treatment by Secretary Clinton’s State Department.”
The letter further detailed how close Yunus and the Clintons are and how they lobbied for a Nobel Prize for Yunus. “Yunus’ personal relationship with the Clintons stems from when Bill Clinton was the governor of Arkansas. For decades, Yunus has been heralded by the Clinton Foundation and showcased at a number of foundation functions. Bill Clinton also personally lobbied the Nobel Committee on behalf of Yunus, and in 2006 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. According to reports, Yunus’ companies donated between $100,000 to $250,000 to the Clinton Global Initiative and $25,000 to $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
Upon Secretary Clinton’s appointment as Secretary of State, the Clinton-Yunus relationship deepened. Secretary Clinton’s Department of State reportedly awarded more than $13 million in taxpayer funds to businesses aligned with Yunus,” Grassley wrote.
He further stated, “In 2011, the Bangladesh government removed Yunus from his position on the Grameen Bank Board of Directors, citing certain legal violations and statutory age limits on his position. During this time, emails between Yunus’ associates, the Clinton Foundation, Hillary Clinton, and Cheryl Mills and other State Department staff appear to show a concerted effort to intercede in the Yunus investigation. The emails demonstrate that Secretary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation closely monitored the investigation into Yunus. The emails also reveal an effort by the US Ambassador to Bangladesh to arrange meetings with the Prime Minister to apply pressure to end the investigation into Yunus.”
The officials involved in these pressure tactics, as per the letter, were:
* James Moriarty—US Ambassador to Bangladesh
* Dan Mozena—US Ambassador to Bangladesh
* Jon Danilowicz—Deputy Chief of Mission, Bangladesh
* Rajiv Shah—Administrator, USAID
According to the letter, Sajeeb Wazed, the son of Prime Minister Hasina, had numerous interactions with high-level State Department officials from 2010-2012. “Mr. Wazed recalled that in almost every meeting, the Yunus investigation would inevitably come up and that he faced pressure to end the investigation. Specifically, Mr. Wazed recounted two conversations with then Deputy Chief of Mission to Bangladesh, Jon Danilowicz, during which Danilowicz mentioned that Wazed might be audited by the IRS if he failed to use his influence to get his mother to drop the investigation into Yunus. Mr. Wazed said that sometimes officials from the State Department were apologetic when repeatedly delivering the message concerning Yunus and made it clear that they were just acting as messengers from the highest levels of the State Department. Furthermore, he was told by these same officials that Yunus was communicating with Secretary Clinton and her staff for assistance, and in turn, Secretary Clinton’s staff pressured the Embassy in Bangladesh to intercede on Yunus’ behalf.”
Grassley, calling for a probe into this matter, wrote that “If the Secretary of State used her position to intervene in an independent investigation by a sovereign government simply because of a personal and financial relationship stemming from the Clinton Foundation rather than the legitimate foreign policy interests of the United States, then that would be unacceptable.”
YUNUS’ CLOSENESS TO THE U.S.
Muhammed Yunus’ closeness to the United States has been highlighted by Indian observers as well.
Dr Arvind Virmani, a member of the NITI Aayog, earlier last week, took to “X” and wrote: “What I know from representing BD in IMF is that Mr. Yunus has a large, influential following in the USA, which lobbied USG to stop IMF BOP loan to BD, because they found PM Hasina/Awami league’s treatment of him unacceptable. US approach to IMF loans for Pakistan was complete opposite.”
“This was a decade ago when there was no question about the election that Awami League had won (free and fair)”, he added.
Official sources in Delhi while acknowledging that Yunus would basically do whatever Washington told him to, refused to state anything on record given the sensitivity of the matter, in which, apart from looking after its strategic concerns, India is also worried about the violence that is happening against minority Hindus ever since Hasina’s removal.
FINDINGS OF REPORT AGAINST YUNUS
The Mamun Ur Rashid-led “Grameen Bank Commission” was established to investigate various allegations and irregularities concerning Grameen Bank and at least 48 other entities related to it. The initial findings reveal multiple concerns regarding the bank’s management, governance, and the integrity of its operations.
Before submitting the interim report, the commission held over 200 meetings and examined more than 30,000 pages of documents.
The report found that Grameen Bank’s management displayed a general unwillingness to cooperate fully with the commission, providing incomplete and sometimes inaccurate information. This pattern of non-cooperation suggested a deliberate attempt to obstruct the commission’s work. Numerous follow-up letters were required to establish facts, indicating a lack of transparency and accountability within the bank’s management.
While some nominated directors participated in the probe, elected directors declined the invitation without explanation.
Further, prominent chartered accountant firms failed to address issues of governance and accountability in their audits of Grameen Bank. The Commission found instances of lax auditing practices, particularly in relation to the financial dealings of associated organisations.
It was reported that the Grameen Bank board met infrequently and did not consistently follow up on important governance issues. Both elected and government-nominated board members rarely raised substantive queries or ensured the implementation of decisions.
Professor Yunus’ significant influence over the board and his close ties with international donors and retired bureaucrats allowed him to operate with minimal interference. This influence extended to the appointment and removal of board members, further compromising governance, the report said.
The report also found that Grameen Bank had made loans to entities that were not “landless persons” in rural areas, which was against its mandate. Similarly, major amendments to Grameen Bank’s structure occurred under the caretaker government headed by the army in 2008, which were extensive and aimed to shift the bank’s focus beyond its original rural mandate. These amendments were later invalidated by the newly elected Parliament.
GEORGE SOROS AND GRAMEENPHONE
The report has highlighted significant illegalities behind the creation of Grameen Telecom, one of the numerous associated organisations that Yunus formed, which involved complex financial arrangements. Yunus’ involvement in these organisations raised questions about accountability and transparency, particularly regarding the transfer of significant funds to trusts and other entities.
The report stated that in February 1999, Yunus secured a loan from the Soros Economic Development Fund and Open Society Institute, operated by the controversial businessman George Soros—who is known for interfering in countries to bring changes to suit his objectives—to buy 35% of the shares of Grameenphone Ltd., with conditions tied to Grameen Bank’s control.
The Commission, based on its extensive findings, requested that the Grameenphone Ltd. mobile telecommunication licence be suspended immediately. However, as it was an ongoing enterprise, it stated that it should not be allowed to cease operation, and the digital mobile telecommunication licence may be held in trust or even be issued in the name of Grameen Telecom.
The earlier Monwaruddin Commission members, as per the report, too suggested that this was a part of the plan to “layer” organisations so that accountability for the use of funds becomes murky and diffused.
The final findings of the commission were presented in August 2011.
In November 2013, the Bangladesh parliament passed the Grameen Bank Act, 2013, which enhanced government control over the microcredit organisation without increasing its ownership stake. The Act allowed the government to make rules for the bank’s operation, retaining a 25% share while the remaining 75% belonging to borrower-shareholders. It mandated the appointment of the managing director with central bank approval, set an age limit of 60 years for the MD, and required audits by two chartered accountant firms annually. The new law omitted previous tax exemptions, provided only income tax exemptions as stipulated by the government, and increased authorized capital and paid-up capital.
However, these changes, sources claimed, were perfunctory and did not impact the operation of the bank nor achieve the result for which the commission was formed.
With Yunus being appointed as the head of the interim government and Hasina’s close aides making it clear that she no longer had the desire to return to Bangladesh politics, observers say it is clear that it is the U.S. State Department that had the last laugh in this battle that was spread across decades.