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Sonali Bank Scam

Swindle unearthed at another branch Tk 159cr loan given illegally

Rejaul Karim Byron and Md Fazlur Rahman
Like its scam-hit Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch, Sonali Bank's Gulshan branch has helped a number of companies to swindle Tk 159 crore out of it.
The branch approved and disbursed the money in loans and advances in the last two and a half years through underhand ways, according to an audit report.
The amount was siphoned off the branch in the name of local and foreign bills purchase and acceptance, reveals the audit done
by chartered account firm Saha Mazumder & Company.
A section of officials in the branch and, probably a section of the top management in the head office, have given their clients these unauthorised loans and credit facilities, it added.
The Gulshan branch in the capital gave loans to 51 clients and the audit found irregularities in case of 35 clients. The audit was carried out between January 1 last year and May 31 this year.
In one instance, the branch gave Tk 106 crore in credit to Limra General Trading by creating accommodation bills. The branch showed exports and imports in papers to help the company to withdraw the money although no such operation took place in reality, said a Sonali Bank official.
The audit report said there were no important documents in the files of parties and there were no client-wise ledgers.
Branch Manager Akteruzzaman continued to hold the post there despite transfer order to Ramna branch on September 5 last year, according to the report.
"The transfer order was not acted upon and instead, he continued to resort to the same irregularities as before.
"This should be investigated thoroughly to see if there were any influences exercised either by the top management of the bank and by the outside political or bureaucratic strength," said the report.
The branch manager has already been suspended following a Bangladesh Bank order. The top management of Sonali Bank will now take punitive action against him, a senior official of the bank told The Daily Star.
Another bank official said the management was planning to file cases against the officials involved in the irregularities.
This official said the central bank had sent directives to the bank management and also to the government to this end, and the process to take action against them was underway.
Irregularities in local and foreign bills purchase and acceptance have been going on in the country's banking sector for long, said a Bangladesh Bank official, adding that the central bank had already collected information from various banks in this regard.
The BB is to sit with the chief executives of commercial banks on Thursday to discuss the findings into the loan fraud and also issue guidelines to commercial banks to stop such plundering of depositor's money.
The audit report found unexpected growth in inland bill purchase (IBP) against total loan and advances in Gulshan branch. In September 2010, the IBP was 9 percent of total loans and advances, which went up to 51 percent in December the same year.
IBP is a bill of exchange that is drawn and made payable within the same country.
In January 2011 the IBP
in the branch was 52 percent of total loans and advances, which rose to 76 percent in May this year.
In some cases, IBP transactions occurred within the sister concerns of the party of Gulshan branch against accommodated bills. Even more intriguing is that many transactions also took place within the same bank and even the same branch.
Although the Principal Office of Sonali Bank had been regularly informed about these irregularities, the General Manager's Office, ITFD and other relevant departments of the Head Office did not take any action, the audit report said.