( CNN ) -- The Bangladeshi government has called on Nobel laureate and microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus to retire from the bank he founded nearly three decades ago to help the poor , but he has said no . `` It 's not possible , and if I withdraw myself from Grameen Bank , it 'll collapse , '' Yunus said , according to Bangladeshi Finance Minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith . Yunis , the target of three recent lawsuits , was not available to comment directly . Muhith told CNN on Tuesday that Yunis is too old to continue as managing director of the bank . `` Normally the retirement age of a bank 's managing director in Bangladesh is 65 , and professor Yunus is now 70 , '' Muhith said , adding Yunus could continue as a director . Muhith said the move had no link to politics , but many analysts said Yunus was still under fire at home for criticizing politicians and trying to form a political party four years ago during an interim , unelected government that was backed by the military . That party was later abandoned . In the last few months , two criminal cases and a defamation suit were filed against Yunus , who won the Nobel Peace Prize along with his Grameen Bank in 2006 . The government formed a committee to probe into Grameen activities in January over charges by Norway of an unauthorized aid fund transfer . The Norwegian government cleared him of any wrongdoing last month . Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused Yunus of playing a `` trick '' to evade taxes and charged last month that microlenders suck `` blood from the poor in the name of poverty alleviation . '' The most recent of his lawsuits , filed Tuesday , is a fraud charge brought by a villager , who says bills for his mobile phone were inflated . Grameen Phone , a joint venture with Norwegian Telenor , is a leading phone company in the country . The defamation charge was brought against Yunus by a politician for his comments in a 4-year-old interview in which he reportedly criticized politicians and said they were only in `` power to make money . '' He was also sued last month by the Dhaka City Corporation for producing `` substandard '' yogurt meant for the poor . The yogurt is produced by a joint venture between French food giant Danone and Yunus ' Grameen Bank .
Grameen Bank founder refuses to step down . Yunus , a Nobel laureate , is recent target of lawsuits . Comment: