DHAKA: A Bangladesh bank confirmed Saturday it had ousted Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus from two businesses he founded, weeks after his conviction in a criminal case his supporters say was politically motivated.
Yunus, 83, is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microlender Grameen Bank but has earned the enmity of long-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has accused him of “sucking blood” from the poor.
Hasina’s government forced Yunus’ resignation from the bank in 2011, leaving him to concentrate on running dozens of anti-poverty firms he has founded.
The bank’s current government-appointed chairman said on Saturday its board had nominated new directors for at least two enterprises still under Yunus’s control.
“They don’t own the enterprises,” A.K.M Saiful Majid told reporters. “They are subsidiaries of the Grameen Bank.”
Grameen Bank chief legal counsel Masud Akhter said in a statement that Majid was now chairman of Grameen Telecom and Grameen Kalyan.
Grameen Telecom, originally created to offer cheap mobile phone services in rural areas, is one of Bangladesh’s richest companies.
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