DHAKA – Bangladesh’s central bank said on Wednesday it had removed Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus from the post of managing director of microlender Grameen Bank, following allegations of irregularities in its operations.
“We have delivered a letter to the Grameen Bank that Muhammad Yunus has been removed,” said the central bank governor’s spokesman, AFM Asaduzzaman. Yunus, 70, set up Grameen Bank and has been its managing director since 2000. Lauded abroad by politicians and financiers, he has been under attack from the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina since late last year, after a Norwegian documentary alleged Grameen Bank was dodging taxes.
Yunus has denied any financial irregularities and his supporters say he is being discredited by the government because of a feud with Hasina dating back to 2007, when he tried to set up a political party while Bangladesh was ruled by an interim military government.
