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Tk 2,638 Crore Loan

Return 50pc in cash in 15 days

Sonali asks Hall-Mark; JS moves to probe

Staff Correspondent
The Hall-Mark Group has been asked to return within 15 days in cash half of the Tk 2,638 crore it borrowed from Sonali Bank allegedly on forged documents.
Pradip Kumar Dutta, managing director of the state-run bank, yesterday told The Daily Star that a letter to this effect had been sent to Hall-Mark MD Tanvir Mahmud.
Also yesterday, Finance Minister AMA Muhith told reporters that he would make a statement today on recent developments in the banking sector and also on the loan scandal.
The statement would be based on the government's observation, not on media reports, he said.
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Meanwhile, a parliamentary body on the finance ministry yesterday formed a subcommittee to investigate the Hall-Mark affair.
Presided over by AHM Mostafa Kamal, the JS body also asked the subcommittee to investigate whether any irregularities had taken place in the grant of the ten highest loans by different state banks.
The three-member subcommittee headed by Tajul Islam has to submit its report within the next two weeks.
Yesterday, Kashem Humayun, a director of the Sonali Bank board, said the letter had been sent to Hall-Mark yesterday in consultation with the governing body.
The letter stated the group had to pay back 50 percent of the loan in cash while the rest would have to be collateralised with land or other properties.
Earlier, Hall-Mark had written to Sonali Bank, seeking continued banking facilities so that it could go on with its business.
In response, the Sonali Bank letter said providing banking facilities to the group would be decided after receiving half of the loan in cash.
The bank would seek advice from Bangladesh Bank in this regard and bank-
ing facilities would be provided as per rules, said one of its officials.
The bank took the decision after the Hall-Mark managing director had told the Anti-Corruption Commission and reporters on Sunday that he owned assets 20 times the amount he had borrowed from the bank, Humayun said. Tanvir had said he would repay " every penny of the loan".
Humayun added the board thoughtTanvir had not withdrawn the money from the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch of Sonali Bank as loans. Rather, he had “withdrawn the money from the branch illegally."
He, however, did not say what action the bank would take if Hall-Mark failed to comply with the letter.
A Bangladesh Bank probe found the Ruposhi Bangla branch had lent the money to the Hall-Mark Group between 2010 and May this year on forged documents.
The group is one of six companies that have bor-rowedTk3,547 crore from the branch illegally with the help of some bank officials.
ACC INTERROGATION Yesterday, two top Sonali Bank officials during interrogation by an Anti-Corruption Commission team denied responsibility for the grant of
the loan, said ACC sources.
The officials — deputy managing directors Atiqur Rahman and Mainul Haque — said they were not aware of developments in the bank regarding the Hall-Mark issue. Both of them work at the International Trade and Finance Division of the bank.
ACC sources said the bankers were questioned separately - Atiqur from 12:00am to 2:00pm and Mainul from 2.45pm to 4.30pm.
The duo said as branches sent statements on loans relating to foreign trade to an assigned deputy general manager, they could not necessarily be aware of the matter.
Asked about his “role” in obstructing a Sonali Bank body from conducting audit, Mainul claimed he was the first to form an audit committee, as a result of which all came to know about this loan scam.
Led by ACC Deputy Director Mir Md Zainul Abedin Shebly, the team till yesterday had quizzed 19 Sonali Bank officials as part of its ongoing investigation into the loan irregularity.
It will quiz Sonali Bank's former managing director Humayun Kabir at 10:00am today.