One Man, Two Faces—How Yunus Hijacked the State to Enrich Grameen

Once celebrated on the world stage as a saint of microcredit, Muhammad Yunus now stands exposed as a master manipulator of state machinery. As the unelected head of Bangladesh’s interim regime, he was expected to uphold neutrality and safeguard the nation’s transition. Instead, he has weaponized the state to erase his personal legal liabilities, enrich his private empire, and rewrite the rules to favor his own network of NGOs and cronies.

Yunus Faces Criticism Over Alleged Privileges

In just a matter of weeks, serious criminal cases against Yunus vanished without explanation. Tk 666 crore in unpaid taxes were wiped away. Future tax exemptions were secured for his institutions, robbing the treasury of revenue that belongs to the people. Key state assets and control over vital sectors like labor migration, digital finance, and public education have been quietly funneled into the hands of Grameen-affiliated entities. This is not good governance. This is a hostile takeover in plain sight.

At a time when the country is being told to endure sacrifices for the sake of reform, Dr. Yunus is building a financial fortress with state blessings, shielding himself from prosecution while empowering an unelected, unaccountable NGO empire. This is not neutrality. This is cronyism at a national scale.

What follows is a detailed exposé of how Muhammad Yunus has turned state power into a private asset portfolio, betraying public trust, undermining democracy, and leaving the nation vulnerable to an unelected oligarchy masked in humanitarian rhetoric.

National Loss, Private Gain: The Price of Tax Favoritism

If justice disappeared for Yunus, so did his tax bills—to the tune of hundreds of crores of public money. In an unprecedented abuse of executive power, Dr. Muhammad Yunus ensured the withdrawal of a staggering ৳666 crore in unpaid taxes owed by Grameen entities, a figure that would make even the most corrupt oligarchs blush.

Grameen Bank’s Tk 666 Crore Tax Bill Waived by Authorities

This wasn’t a legal settlement. This wasn’t due process. This was a backdoor deal that hijacked the National Board of Revenue (NBR)—a constitutional body meant to protect public interest. While small businesses and ordinary citizens struggle under the weight of tax audits, fines, and endless bureaucratic harassment, Grameen institutions received full immunity, like royalty above the law.

And the looting didn’t stop there.

The Yunus regime went a step further, ensuring that Grameen institutions wouldn’t pay a single taka in taxes for the next five years. 

Grameen Bank Granted 5-Year Tax Exemption

Let that sink in. 

At a time when the nation is told to cut spending, when subsidies are being slashed, and when fuel, gas, and electricity prices are skyrocketing—one man, his network, and his empire are enjoying a tax holiday worth hundreds of crores. And it’s all happening under the guise of neutrality.

This is not economic reform. This is economic robbery with state approval.

While the health sector suffers, while education budgets are slashed, while inflation continues to crush working families, Grameen walks away with tax exemptions that could fund hundreds of public schools and hospitals. And the man behind it all sits in the highest chair of the so-called “neutral” government, untouched, unchallenged, and unapologetic.

This is not just favoritism. This is a financial betrayal of the Bangladeshi people.

Privatizing National Assets: Reducing Government Control in Grameen Bank

After securing tax amnesty and legal immunity, Muhammad Yunus turned his focus to the next target—national ownership itself. In an alarming move that reeked of self-interest, the interim government under Yunus quietly reduced the government’s stake in Grameen Bank from 25% to just 10%.

Government Ownership in Grameen Bank Scaled Back

This wasn't just a bureaucratic adjustment—it was a calculated power grab.
By stripping away state ownership, Yunus handed over effective control of a national microfinance institution to unnamed private entities, many of whom remain unaccountable and potentially connected to his inner circle.

Let’s be clear:
Grameen Bank was built with state policy support, taxpayer incentives, and rural manpower. It was a project embedded in Bangladesh’s national development fabric. Yunus didn’t invent microfinance, but he’s now privatizing its profits and legacy.

This transfer of power wasn’t debated in parliament. It wasn’t even publicly announced. It was done behind closed doors, through executive decisions that bypassed democratic oversight. The result? A national institution now operates as a private fiefdom—controlled by Yunus-aligned individuals, shielded from public scrutiny, and positioned to serve corporate interests over citizen welfare.

When a Nobel laureate begins gutting state institutions for personal leverage, we’re no longer talking about economics—we’re talking about betrayal.

Empire-Building Behind the Veil: How Yunus Turned Public Institutions Into Personal Assets

While the state was being stripped of its rightful control over Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus was already executing the next phase of his self-serving agenda—turning public institutions and policies into vehicles for personal branding, private monopolies, and financial capture. Under his unelected rule, national resources were diverted not toward the public good but toward expanding the Yunus empire.

Take Grameen University, for example. Instead of focusing on national educational reform, Yunus pushed through state-level approvals to launch a vanity project bearing his name—an institution whose primary goal is not education, but the elevation of one man’s brand. This is not nation-building—it’s narcissism disguised as development. An entire university was greenlit through public channels to solidify the legacy of a man who is no longer accountable to voters, lawmakers, or even auditors.

Grameen University Gets Green Light Amid Rising Concerns

Meanwhile, in the lucrative labor export sector, Yunus orchestrated another quiet coup. Through Grameen Employment Services, his network has begun to dominate the migrant labor market—an industry that sustains millions of Bangladeshi families through remittances. With state blessing but no public transparency, this entity is now being positioned as a gatekeeper for overseas jobs. This isn’t reform. It’s a capture of the most vital source of foreign currency under the pretense of efficiency.

Grameen Employment Gets Approval to Export Manpower

And then comes the finance sector. Grameen Telecom—already under fire for years of unpaid dues and worker exploitation—has now been handed a digital wallet license, giving Yunus and his cronies direct access to the heart of Bangladesh’s financial transactions. While traditional banks follow rigorous oversight and central bank scrutiny, this license was handed over during the interim regime with disturbing ease. Yunus isn’t just part of the system anymore—he’s above it.

But perhaps the most chilling example of this unchecked power was thetransfer of Tk 700 crore from the Ministry of Social Welfare directly to the Grameen Trust—no tender, no oversight, no competition. This wasn’t aid. This was expropriation. Funds meant for the country’s poorest were redirected to a private trust under Yunus’s control, through an opaque “SSS model” that no one seems able—or willing—to explain. This is not social protection. This is looting behind the veil of philanthropy.

To make matters worse, questions are now being raised about the July Shaheed Smriti Foundation—another initiative associated with Yunus. Who funds it? Whose money runs it? While Yunus is positioned as the face of the foundation, the operations seem to be carried out by his loyal circle. If it’s truly a private initiative, why is it functioning with the backing of public influence and government money, under the veil of philanthropy? This further exposes the expanding shadow empire where everything—from education to migration, finance to social work—is being controlled by a select few, all orbiting around one man’s ambition.

With each move, Muhammad Yunus has turned state power into a private asset portfolio. His is not a government of reform, but a regime of personal profit, disguised in the language of development, executed in the shadows of legality. And the cost? National institutions hollowed out, public trust shattered, and the machinery of the state repurposed for one man’s gain.

The Final Conflict: Still Holding NGO Board Seats—Illegally

Even after assuming the most powerful non-elected position in the country, Muhammad Yunus continues to straddle both sides of the state-NGO divide—a constitutional breach of epic proportions. As Chief Advisor, his role demands complete neutrality, a distance from private interests, and above all, undivided allegiance to the republic. Yet Yunus remains entrenched on the boards of multiple NGOs, including institutions that receive state contracts, funds, and favorable policy decisions under his regime.

This is not a technical oversight—it is a deliberate act of defiance, a slap in the face of constitutional norms and governance ethics. How can a man who signs executive orders by day continue to direct private organizations by night? Where is the line between public duty and personal gain when the same hand that governs also profits?

By retaining his NGO affiliations, Yunus has made it clear: he does not see himself as a caretaker, but as a permanent ruler who answers to no law, no conflict of interest, and no principle of accountability. This is not just unethical—it is illegal. And the silence of the institutions that should be investigating this speaks volumes about the climate of fear, control, and collusion he has engineered around him.

This is the final and most dangerous concentration of power—a man who governs from the state and profits from the private sector simultaneously, unchecked, unopposed, and unashamed.

Can an Interim Head of a Government Wield Such Unchecked Power?

How is it possible that Muhammad Yunus, merely as a Chief Advisor in an interim government, has managed to bypass courts, silence multiple investigations, and shut down legal cases against himself with such ease? Who granted him the power to exempt billions in taxes, reduce government ownership of key national institutions, and funnel massive public funds directly into his own networks—all without accountability or oversight?

This is not the work of a neutral caretaker government; this is the orchestration of a personal empire built on state machinery. The appointment of his loyalists in critical government positions and the unchecked consolidation of economic and political power raise a critical question: Can one man, under the guise of interim leadership, hijack the state for his own benefit?

The real danger is not just what has already happened under Yunus’s watch—it is what he is still capable of doing, unchecked and unchallenged.

The people of Bangladesh deserve answers.