The central bank sent a letter to the chief executive officer of Oriental Bank referring to recent investigations into huge fraud in the bank that found involvement of at least 22 officials and majority shareholder of the bank Obaidul Karim.

The investigations found that Obaidul Karim misappropriated about Tk 488.50 crore through unauthorised issuance of 371 Inter-Branch Debit Advice (IBD). Another Tk 106.47 crore was embezzled by providing loans against fake accounts.

"Such incidents fall under criminal acts and the Oriental Bank should file cases against the accused without any delay," the BB letter says.

Koyes Sami was aware of the matter, and as chief of the management, he is similarly involved in the crime, it added.

The other officials of Oriental Bank against whom the BB asked to file criminal cases include SM Harun, senior vice president, AQM Mahmud Ullah, senior assistant vice president, Mohammad Yameen, senior assistant vice president, Mohammad Fazlur Rahman, assistant vice president, Quamrul Islam, vice president, Alamgir Kabir, assistant vice president, Tariqul Alam, executive officer, Mohiuddin Ahmed, assistant vice president, Syed Mahmud Hasan, assistant vice president, Shahid Uddin Khandaker, senior officer, Mohammad Emdad Hossain Bhuiyan, executive officer, Mohammad Firoz Kabir, senior officer, Manjurul Amin, senior assistant vice president and Saiful Aziz Pavel.

The former officials are Istiaq Ahmed Chowdhury, former executive vice president of Oriental Bank and now working as deputy managing director of Trust Bank, Mustaq Ahmed, former assistant vice president of Oriental and now manager, One Bank, Syed Sarfaraj Shah, former assistant vice president of Oriental and now working in State Bank of India, Dhaka, AZM Saleh, former manager of Oriental and presently working as manager of One Bank, Khandaker Shahrukh Ahmed, now working in the IFIC Bank, Arifur Rahman, now working in One Bank, and ANM Asifur Rahman, former senior assistant vice president of Oriental Bank, now absconding.

Oriental Bank sources said they are discussing the matter with lawyers on filing criminal cases against the culprits.

BAIL PETITION OF EX-ORIENTAL BANK OFFICIAL REJECTED
Our court correspondent adds: A Dhaka court yesterday rejected the bail petition of a former Oriental Bank Ltd official, who was arrested on Monday on charge of misappropriating Tk 40 crore.

Metropolitan Magistrate Selina Akhter passed the order after the defence lawyers' lengthy hearing on the bail petition of Ashfaqul Hakim, former executive officer of the bank.

Ashfaqul Hakim, and former executive vice-presidents Sabbir Ahmed Siddiqui and Muhammad Muktadir Billah were picked up from their houses in the early hours on Monday after a graft case was filed against them with Tejgaon Police Station the same day.

Later, they were brought to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court with a forwarding report where an Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) official, Zahangir Alam who is also the investigation officer of the case, appealed to detain them in the jail custody until the investigation was complete.

Rejecting Sabbir and Muktadir's bail, the court on Monday ordered them to be sent to Dhaka Central Jail and fixed yesterday for further hearing on Ashfaqul's bail petition.

Tariqul Islam Khan, the other accused, also a former assistant vice-president of the branch, is still at large.