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Sonali Loan Scam

27 banks under BB, ACC scanner

Anti-graft body asks for their records of transactions linked with Hall-Mark

Rejaul Karim Byron, Julfikar Ali Manik and Md Fazlur Rahman
The Bangladesh Bank and the AntiCorruption Commission are separately investigating the roles of 27 state-owned, private and foreign banks in the Sonali Bank loan scandal.
The Sonali Bank's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch had lent Tk 3,606 crore to Hall-Mark, T and Brothers, Paragon Group, Nakshi Knit, DN Sports and
KhanjahanAli.
The central bank earlier found half of the loans were based on forged local and foreign export bills.
It is now inquiring into the 59 branches of the 27 banks to know whether they were partners in any irregularity that helped the Ruposhi Bangla branch buy fake acceptance bills.
The ACC also has asked these banks to urgently submit documents relating to purchase and acceptance bills issued between 2010 and May this year, the period of the Tk 3,606 crore swindle.
Sources said Mir Md Zainul Abedin Shebly, a deputy director of the commission, last month wrote to the managing directors and chief executives of the banks for the papers.
“Some of the banks have already provided us with the documents,” said an ACC official, preferring not to be named.
According to the antigraft body, some clients of the 27 banks have banking records with money illegally borrowed from the Ruposhi Bangla branch by Hall-Mark Group and five other companies.
The banks include state-owned Sonali, Janata, Agrani, Rupali and BASIC banks.
The other twenty-two banks are Shahjalal Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank, Mercantile Bank, National Credit and Commerce Bank Ltd, United Commercial Bank, One Bank, Al Arafah Islami Bank, Jamuna Bank, IFIC, City Bank, Uttara Bank, Prime Bank, State Bank of India, National Bank of Pakistan, Bank Al Falah, Premier Bank, National Bank Ltd, Mutual Trust Bank, BRAC Bank, Islami Bank, Exim Bank and Southeast bank.
A top Sonali Bank official said soon after the Ruposhi Bangla branch lent a huge sum of money to Hall-Mark, it was detected that a number of foreign and local banks had been demanding money from Sonali Bank against acceptance bills.
An issuance of these acceptance letters means the branch confirmed with the 27 banks that its client Hall-Mark and five other companies had received due supplies from the clients of some branches of those banks against letters of credit (LC) opened earlier, sources said.
And, the branch would pay the money of the delivered goods to Hall-Mark and others within the next 30 days of issuing the acceptance letters.
Usually, business clients of the banks do not wait 30 days for the payment of their delivered goods; they want cash as quickly as possible. So they propose their banks to purchase the acceptance letter.
According to banking provisions, banks give their clients 75 percent of the total amount of acceptance letters, a procedure called purchasing “inland bill” of own clients in exchange of an interest rate.
When a bank transfers the payment after 30 days of issuing their acceptance letters, the bank at the receiving end pays the rest -- 25 percent -- to their client who earlier had sold out the acceptance letter.
The ACC official, on condition of anonymity, said as the Ruposhi Bangla branch issued many such acceptance letters to some branches of 27 banks, the commission decided to look into the matter.
Since May, the branch has already paid $111 million (more than Tk 800 crore) against foreign bills it had accepted or purchased.
But, against the inland bills purchases, the 27 banks have been demanding money, which the branch is yet to pay, the official said.
A BB official said the central bank had received complaints from different banks that Sonali Bank was not paying their dues
against local export bills.
So far, 59 branches of those banks have claimed their dues against the bills. The central bank will investigate whether officials of those branches were involved in any anomaly.
A BB official said they had already inquired into some of the branches and found the involvement of state-run Janata Bank and Agrani Bank in the scam. Detailed investigation is going on in other branches.
In one case, the Janata Bank corporate branch opened two accounts in the name of two companies. For both the accounts, Tanvir Mahmud, managing director of Hall-Mark Group, was the introducer.
A central bank official said funds were transferred to the accounts of these companies, although the branch did not inspect whether the two companies existed.
The BB also carried out a special inspection on the activities of the principal branch of Agrani Bank.
The corresponding banks, which are making claims to the Ruposhi Bangla branch, have a responsibility to see whether the accounts of fake companies were opened with them, the official added.
Officials also believe private banks might have been used as platforms for the swindling.
Another central bank official said irregularities over purchase and acceptance of local and foreign bills took place inside branches, banks and with other banks.
And irregularities were behind a number of major scams in the banking sector in the country.
The official said the central bank was investigating not only Hall-Mark issues but also wrongdoing over purchase and acceptance bills.
The ACC, too, has asked for documents on all bill purchases against acceptance letters to examine whether there was any other scam involving any other client of the Ruposhi Bangla branch.