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Forged notes creep out of BB vault

Tk 50,000 given to Mercantile Bank found phony, 2 suspended

Star Report
The day the Bangladesh Bank (BB) distributed alert posters on fake notes, a bundle of Tk 50,000 in Tk 500 forged bills crept out of its own vault yesterday.
When a Mercantile Bank official went to the BB treasury office at around 10:00am to receive cash, he was in for a shock. Among his 10 bundles of Tk 500 bills, he detected one wad of counterfeit notes that sent questions ringing about the source of the recent glut of fake
notes.
"We are investigating the incident to find out how the fake notes got their way into the vault," BB Governor Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed told The Daily Star. "We have already suspended some officials."
Sources said two officials directly dealing with the vaults have been suspended and two more will be suspended today.
The Mercantile Bank official who found the fake notes immediately informed the matter to BB General Manager (GM) Abdul Matin.
Matin came down to the ground floor transaction lounge and saw the fake notes for himself.
Later, the BB took back the counterfeit bundle and issued a new wad to Mercantile Bank. An assistant vice-president of Mercantile submitted a written complaint to the BB regarding the matter.
Although the BB accepted the complaint, it did not officially receive it, sources said.
The find sent other bank officials frantically testing their money withdrawn from the BB, using fake
note detection machine. However, no more fake notes were found.
The BB has eight vaults and the notes that flow into them all day long are sorted out in bundles with sorting machines. During this exercise, checks are carried out to detect fake notes.
A private firm, NSS, is in charge of the sorting and detection job. Before depositing the bundles in vaults, a BB official signs them.
Sources said the counterfeit bundle was found in vault No. 8 and
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it did not have the signature of the BB official.
The BB suspects that some officials of the BB and the private firm might be involved in the scam.
BB officials said the vault room lacks security and does not have any close-circuit camera as needed.
According to bankers, similar incidents of fake notes being supplied from the BB vaults occurred in the past.
Only three days ago, the BB issued a circular asking the commercial banks to take measures against circulation of forged notes. It said organised groups of forgers in collusion with some bank officials slip counterfeits into wads before handing them out to bank clients.