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50 involved

Anti-graft body quizzes 4 more Sonali Bank officials

Julfikar Ali Manik
At least fifty Sonali Bank officials might have been involved in illegal disbursement of Tk 3,547 crore loan to the controversial Hallmark Group, an Anti-Corruption Commission official said yesterday.
Earlier, Sonali Bank itself as well as Bangladesh Bank and the chartered accountant firm Syful Shamsul Alam & Co in their probe reports had put the figure at 32.
"We think no less than fifty Sonali Bank officials can be held responsible for the grant of this loan, although the number was less in the reports of Sonali Bank, Bangladesh
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Bank and the audit firm," the ACC official said on condition ofanonymity.
Yesterday, a six-member ACC probe body quizzed four more officials, all from the bank's GM office in Dhaka. So far 17 officers of the state-run commercial bank have been interrogated by the team as part of its ongoing investigation into the irregularity.
Of the four, Sabita Siraj is a general manager now on leave preparatory to retirement (LPR). She was a deputy general manager when the loan scam took place.
The rest are assistant general managers Golam Nabi Mallick and Ashraf Ali Patwari and senior executive officer Waheed Uddin Ahmed. In a late night development, the bank suspended the trio along with 14 others for their alleged involvement in the scandal.
ACC sources said like others who have been quizzed by the commission, the four too denied complicity.
During the questioning from 9:30am to 4:45pm at the ACC office in the capital's Segunbagicha, the four hinted that the loan arrangement was like an open secret. It was also common knowledge that top officials of the institution were aware of the matter while the loan was in process.
They claimed that being lower-tier officials they had nothing to do with the incident when the high authorities did not take any measure.
One or two of the four said it was not possible for them to know whether Prime Minister's Health Adviser Modasser Ali played any role over the issue.
But they knew that the adviser used to visit the bank's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch from where the loan was disbursed to Hallmark and five other business organisations.
The anti-graft body has
information that Modasser Ali allegedly influenced the Sonali Bank authorities to illegally provide the loan to Hallmark, The Daily Star reported on Thursday citing ACC sources.
The adviser denies the allegation.
Previously, a Bangladesh Bank investigation found that the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch, based on forged documents, had lent Hallmark and five other com-paniesTk3,547 crore between 2010andMaythisyear.
Of the Tk 3,547 crore, Hallmark alone took Tk 2,686.14 crore while T and Brothers received Tk 609.69 crore, Paragon Group Tk 146.60 crore, Nakshi Knit Tk 66.36 crore, DN Sports Tk 33.25 crore and Khanjahan Ali Tk4.96 crore.
But the ACC official said the commission investigators had come to know some names which were not in the probe reports. Their not discharging duties properly helped these controversial business organisations get this loan.
They will be asked to appear before the ACC probe team.
The ACC sources said the four fictitious spinning mills of Hallmark Group opened accounts with Sonali Bank without due procedure. The group received a portion of the loan using these companies.
The officials linked to the opening of those accounts could be interrogated by the ACC team, the sources said.
Throughout next week, the ACC investigation team comprising deputy directors Mir Md Zainul Abedin Shebly, Akhter Hamid, assistant directors Nazmus Sadat and Moshiur Rahman and deputy assistant directors Mohammad Mojibur Rahman and Zainal Abedin will quiz other Sonali Bank officials.