Dhaka – The Anti-Corruption Commission on Monday approved 11 charge sheets against 25 people for their involvement in embezzlement of Tk 1,568.39 crore of the Sonali Bank from its Ruposhi Bangla Hotel Branch by Hall Mark Group.The commission gave the approval to submit charge sheets against 12 Hallmark Group bosses and its associates including its managing director Tanvir Mahmud, his wife Jesmin Islam, also chairman of the group, its general manager Tushar Ahmed, and 13 Sonali Bank officials including former managing director Humayun Kabir, said ACC commissioner M Shahabuddin while talking to reporters at his office.
He said that the commission probe team did not find any involvement of Prime Minister’s Adviser for Health Affairs Dr Syed Modasser Ali with the Hallmark- Sonali Bank loan scandal. The ACC commissioner said the Board of Directors of Sonali Bank also was not involved with the scam. “If the embezzled money was loan they (Board of Directors) must have known about it but it was a forgery, and they were not aware,’” he added.
On the probe report of a parliamentary sub-committee, the ACC commissioner said the sub-committee failed to mention specific involvement of Modasser Ali. On November 7 last year, a parliamentary probe committee found the frequent visits to Sonali Bank branch at Hotel Ruposhi Bangla by adviser Syed Modasser Ali as “quite unusual.”
Charge sheeted include Hall Mark Group people include its — managing director Tanvir Mahmud, his wife Jesmin Islam, also chairman of the group, general manager Tushar Ahmed, managing director of its sister concern Anwar Spinning Mills Zahangir Alam, managing director of Century International Limited Ziaur Rahman, managing director of Max Spinning Mills Mir Zakaria, managing director of Apparel Enterprise Shahidul Islam, owner of Star Spinning Mills’ M Jahangir Alam, director of T and Brothers’ Taslim Hasan, managing director of Paragon Group’s Saiful Islam Raza, and managing director of Nakshi Knit and Composite Limited’s Abdul Malek.
The charge sheeted Sonali Bank officials are former assistant general manager AKM Azizur Rahman, suspended assistant general manager Saiful Hasan, suspended executive officer Abdul Matin and senior executive officer Mehrunnisa Meri of Sonali Bank Ruposhi Bangla hotel branch.
Those were from Sonali Bank’s head office are managing director Humayun Kabir, deputy managing directors – Mainul Haque and Atiqur Rahman, general managers (OSD) Nani Gopal Nath and Mir Mohidur Rahman, deputy general managers Sheikh Altaf Hossain and M Safiz Uddin Ahmed, and assistant general managers Kamrul Hossain Khan and Ezaz Ahmed.
The commission also farmed charge against Tetul Jhara union parishad chairman Jamal Uddin Sarkar as he issued the trade licences in the name of the fake organisations to Hall Mark Group.
Sonali Bank’s deputy general manager (OSD) Bhagaboti Majumder, assistant general manager Abul Hasan, Ruposhi Bangla Branch former senior officer Wahiduzzaman, general manager ANM Masrurul Huda Sirazi of Head Office, former general manager Sabita Siraz, deputy general manager Kaniz Fatema Chowdhury and assistant general managers- M Khurshed Alam and Ashraf Ali Patwari were exclude from the cases.
ACC’s seven-member probe team led by its deputy director Mir Joynul Abdin Shibly on Thursday submitted the reports to the commission after 11 months of investigation. On October 4 last year, the commission filed 11 cases against seven bosses of Hallmark Group and 20 officials of Sonali Bank.
Six officials of the commission filed the cases with the Ramna police for their alleged involvement in embezzlement over Tk 1,568.39 crore out of about Tk 2,686 crore embezzled from the Sonali Bank’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch. – Staff Reporter
