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Swindlers gobble up Tk 350cr

ACCfiles 26 cases against 35 officials of Sonali Bank, Hall-Mark and five other companies

Staff Correspondent
The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday filed 26 cases against 17 top officials of state-run Sonali Bank, 16 others of five business entities and two bosses of Hall-Mark Group over misappropriation of around Tk 350 crore depositors' money.
The five firms and Hall-Mark swindled a total of Tk 3,547 crore from Sonali Bank's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch between October 2011 and May last year.
Of the amount, Hall-Mark alone got Tk 2,686 crore.
T & Brothers embezzled Tk 317.52 crore, Paragon Knit Composite Ltd Tk 13.58 crore, DN Sports Tk 2.81 crore, Nakshi Knit and Composite Ltd Tk 10.81 crore and Khanjahan Ali Sweater Ltd Tk 1.14 crore.
In the cases, Hall-Mark Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud and General Manager Tushar Ahmed face charges of abetting Paragon and
Nakshi respectively. Both were detained earlier in connection with the scam.
"These were not loans,” ACC Deputy Director Mir Md Zainul Abedin Shibly told reporters at a press brief in ACC headquarters yester-day. "These were misappropriations through forged documents in collaboration with some bank officials.”
He said the swindlers prepared fake documents to open letter of credit and inland bill purchase and drew the money without doing any business.
The cases are dealing with the embezzlement of Tk 350.37 crore funded money or the portion disbursed in cash, Shibly added.
In May last year, a Bangladesh Bank probe revealed serious irregularities at the Sonali Bank branch in sanctioning and disbursing of the Tk 3,547 crore loans.
The ACC on October 4 the same year filed 11 cases against 27 top officials of Sonali Bank and Hall-Mark over a scam involving Tk 1,568 crore. Of the amount, Tk2,686 crore was disbursed in cash.
Sonali Bank on August 30 suspended 17 of its officials over the fraud.
THEACCUSED
The accused in the 26 cases include three officials of the Ruposhi Bangla branch and they are AKM Azizur Rahman, suspended manager now behind bars; AGM Saiful Hasan and executive officer Abdul Matin.
Four accused — general managers Nani Gopal Nath, Mir Mohidur Rahman and Sabita Siraj and AGM Ashraf Ali Patwari -- are from the bank's GM office in Dhaka while Mehrunnesa Merry, senior executive officer, is from Dhanmondi branch.
The rest of the accused bankers are linked to its head office. They are Humayun Kabir, former managing director and CEO, DMD Mainul Haque, DMD Atiqur Rahman, GM Mashrurul Huda Siraji, DGM Sheikh Altaf Hossain, DGM Safizuddin Ahmad, AGM Kamrul Hossain Khan and DGM Kaniz Fatema Chowdhury.
The 16 officials of the business firms include T & Brothers Chairman Jinath Fatema, Managing Director Touhid Hossain and Director Taslim Hasan, Paragon Managing Director Saiful Islam Raja and Director Abdullah Al Mamun, Mondal Brothers owner Mukul Hossain, Nakshi Knit Chairman Amena Begum, Managing Director Abdul Malek and Director M Jamir Hussain.
DN Sports Chairman Motaher Uddin Chowdhury, Managing Director Shafiqur Rahman John and Director Fahmida Akhter Shikha, Khanjahan Ali Sweater Chairman Tajul Islam, Managing Director Jalil Sheikh, and directors Rafiqul Islam and Mir Mohammad Shawkat Ali are also among the accused.