DHAKA, (Reuters) – Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has been removed from his position as head of microlender Grameen Bank, Bangladesh’s central bank said yesterday, following allegations of irregularities in its operations.
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 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government 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.
“We have delivered a letter to the Grameen Bank that Muhammad Yunus has been removed,” said the central bank governor’s spokesman, A.F.M. Asaduzzaman.
On Tuesday, a central bank official said a letter had been sent to the Finance Ministry demanding Yunus retire immediately because he had been in his post at Grameen for nearly a decade longer than the law allowed.
