The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) on Wednesday questioned the managing directors of two commercial banks in connection with the Bismillah Group loan scam. They are Managing director of Mercantile Bank Ehsanul Haque (former DMD of Prime Bank) and managing director of Bank Asia Mehmood Husain (former SEVP of Prime Bank). ACC assistant director Mahbubul Alam questioned them for two hours from 2 pm at the ACC head office in the capital, ACC Public Relations Officer Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya told UNB. On November 3, 2013, the ACC filed 12 cases against 53 people, including 13 officials of Bismillah Group, a terry towel producer, on charge of swindling about Tk 1,175 crore from five commercial banks. The 13 officials of Bismillah Group who were named in the cases are managing director of Bismillah Towel Limited Khwaja Solaiman Anwar Chowdhury, its chairman and Solaiman’s wife Nowrin Hasib; directors Safiqul Anwar Chowdhury, Abida Hasib, Nahid Anwar Khan, Khandakar M Moinuddin Ashraf and Sarwar Jahan; deputy managing director of Bismillah Towel Group Akbar Aziz Muttaki, general manager of Bismillah Towel Group Abul Hossain Chowdhury and manager Riaz Uddin Ahmed, chairman of Network Framework System Limited (an authorised entity of Bismillah Group) M Akter Hossain; TW Express owner M Moin Uddin, and owner of Bay Yarn Limited Ghulam Moinuddin Ahmed. The remaining 40 accused are the officials of Janata Bank, Prime Bank, Jamuna Bank, Shahjalal Islami Bank and Premier Bank. The ACC sources said Bismillah Group with the help of bank officials swindled Tk 526.96 crore from three branches of Janata Bank, Tk 326.51 crore from Motijheel branch of Prime Bank, Tk 154.66 crore from Motijheel branch of Jamuna Bank, Tk 104.04 crore from Eskaton branch of Shahjalal Islami Bank and Tk 62.53 crore from Motijheel branch of Premier Bank. The controversial group embezzled the money with the help of bank officials between June 2011 and July 2012 using names of fake foreign buyers and forged documents. – UNB
