Amid extradition call, Bestinet founder denies money laundering claim

Controversial firm Bestinet Sdn Bhd and its founder Aminul Islam Abdul Nor have refuted allegations in a Bloomberg report yesterday that they have links to money laundering or human trafficking.

Bloomberg reported that the Bangladesh government sent a letter to the Malaysian authorities seeking the arrest and extradition of Bangladesh-born Malaysian citizen Aminul Islam and a Bangladeshi associate Ruhul Amin, on charges of money laundering, extortion and migrant worker trafficking.

The information was confirmed by the officer serving Interpol in Bangladesh, who also said the Malaysian authorities had replied to ask Bangladesh to send in a formal request, Bloomberg reported yesterday.

Although he did not directly address the extradition issue, Bestinet and Aminul’s lawyer N Sivanathan in a statement today said the article made false insinuation.

“The recent article’s insinuations that Aminul or Bestinet might be involved in illegal practices are completely unfounded.

“Bestinet’s technology is specifically developed to foster transparent and lawful recruitment practices, which are closely monitored and regulated by Malaysian and Bangladeshi government bodies.

“Every aspect of the Foreign Worker Central Management System (FWCMS) platform operates in full compliance with the Malaysian Home Ministry and Immigration Department standards, as well as international guidelines,” he said.

He added that the entire process involves stringent checks, including authentication by the Bangladesh Embassy in Malaysia “ensuring compliance at multiple levels”.

“Dato Sri Amin (Aminul) has not, at any point, been involved beyond the officially sanctioned scope of Bestinet’s technology services,” the lawyer said.

Migrant workers must go through FWCMS to enter Malaysia, and Bestinet collects a processing fee of RM100 each from workers.

Bestinet retained earnings of RM128 million and made RM85 million in profits out of RM138.92 million in revenue in the financial year ending Dec 31, 2022, its accounts filed with the Companies Commission Malaysia showed.

PAC’s findings

However, the Public Accounts Committee found that the FWCMS has been operating since 2015 without a formal contract with the government.

There was, however, a letter of acceptance for the development of the FWCMS system on Jan 12, 2018.

“This means that the government/Home Ministry has used the FWCMS system for approximately six years without a finalised contract, clearly violating the regulations set by the government,” the PAC said in a statement.

It also found security and governance issues, where the system was vulnerable to hacking and that user accounts which should only be held by government staff were accessed by unauthorised individuals.

This included 24 unauthorised users who had approved 24 employer applications.

Despite the issues, the government in June decided to extend the use of the FWCMS for another three years, with improvements to its governance.

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