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PREMIER BANK FAKE ACCOUNTS

BB board rejects sacked MD's plea

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) board has rejected an appeal of removed managing director (MD) of Premier Bank Kazi Abdul Mazid and upheld the central bank's decision to remove him on charges of his involvement in opening of fake bank accounts.
The BB yesterday notified Mazid about the board decision, saying that a board meeting on Sunday
rejected the appeal on examination of the BB investigation report on opening of fake accounts by the Premier Bank and recommendations of the central bank's standing committee.
The standing committee in its report said there was circumstantial evidence that the high officials of the Premier Bank including its MD pressured the managers into opening fake accounts at different
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branches in the capital.
"The ill practice of the new system in applying for shares through BO accounts has created confusion and uncertainty among the investors about fairness of new capital issuance activities of other bank and institutions," it observed.
Mazid in the appeal said, "I was not involved in the irregularities. The removal decision was taken against me without any evidence." He termed his removal "unfair and autocratic".
Sources said the BB governor and other senior officials, who had earlier taken punitive action against Mazid, were not present at Sunday's meeting that turned down the appeal. Prof Mamtazuddin Ahmed presided over the meeting also attended by Dr Wahiuddin Mahmud, Prof M Alauddin, Finance Secretary Zakir Ahmed Khan, National Board of Revenue Chairman Khairuzzaman Chowdhury and Dr Amena Ahmed.
On April 28, the central bank removed Mazid after its probe into the private bank's IPO (initial public offering) scam detected his involvement in the opening of fake bank accounts.
The central bank launched the probe on February14 after the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 12 froze Premier Bank's Tk 55 crore IPO. The capital market watchdog's move followed the unearthing of huge fake beneficiary owners' (BOs) accounts in its preliminary investigation.
ALLEGATIONS
The Bangladesh Bank enquiry found that all the 14 branches of
Premier Bank in Dhaka opened a total of 17,867 savings accounts through irregularities. Of the accounts, 8,703 were opened with partial documents necessary for opening any account, while the remaining 9,166 accounts have no documents at all. Even the account opening forms were not supplied.
The investigation body in its report said a total of 26,004 beneficiary owners' (BO) accounts were opened against the "so-called" savings accounts with the bank. The BO accounts were opened in absence of the account holders and the bank did not take Tk 300 as account opening charge against each account.
It found that the fake savings accounts were opened in only one and a half months' time and the BO accounts in just 17 days between January and February this year.
Except for one, all the managers of the 14 branches of the bank told the enquiry team that they opened the accounts on the verbal instructions over telephone of the managing director.
BB OBSERVATION
From the statements of bank managers, except for the manager of Banani branch, it is clear that the top officials of the bank including its managing director had pressured the branch managers into opening fake savings and BO accounts.
The top brass of the bank, not the branch managers, made futile attempts to halt the investigations of the SEC and the BB by obtaining court orders, it said.
The central bank said Mazid had been cautioned several times for his involvement in irregularities during his stint with other banks.