PK Halder’s cohort took Tk 3,520cr loans with fake papers
With fake documents, a close accomplice of Proshanta Kumar Halder, known as PK Halder, alone managed to get loans of about Tk 3,520 crore from three non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) between 2015 and 2019.
The money was transferred to different accounts of Nawsher Ul Islam, a proprietor of Nature Enterprise and MTB Marine, sources said.
He withdrew about Tk 2,432 crore.
The accounts are now frozen where about Tk 952 crore is still there, they added.
The findings came out after the ACC's enquired into the embezzlement of over Tk 3,500 crore from People's Leasing and Financial Services by PK Halder.
The three NBFIs are: International Leasing and Financial Services (ILFSL), FAS Finance and Investment, and People's Leasing and Financial Services.
"Halder was at the top position of the NBFIs during the period [2015-2019]. He patronised it," sources said.
In 2015, Halder joined NRB Global Bank as its managing director. Before that, he was the Reliance Finance MD.
His organisation -- HAL International -- owned 7.41 percent shares of IFLSL in 2015 and 2016.
Being a shareholder of IFLSL, he got hold of the NBFIs, the sources added.
In the enquiry, the Anti-Corruption Commission found that about Tk 773.35 crore loans were sanctioned to the names of three other people -- Momtaz Begum, Basudev Banarjee, and his wife Papia Banarjee -- from the NBFIs.
They too submitted fake documents.
Nawsher was a proprietor of Nature Enterprise and MTB Marine, while his wife Momtaz and Basudev were proprietors of MTB Marine and Papia was a proprietor of Nature Enterprise.
Momtaz got loans of about Tk 4 crore and withdrew about Tk 2.5 crore. The anti-graft watchdog has frozen about Tk 2.69 crore in her account.
An ACC official said showing fake documents, Basudev managed to get loans of about Tk 764 crore from the NBFIs. The money was deposited to Basudev's accounts from where he withdrew about Tk 462 crore.
Similarly, about Tk 5.35 crore loans were deposited to Papia's accounts. She withdrew about Tk 34 crore.
Besides the loans, money from different sources were deposited to her accounts, said the ACC official, preferring to be unnamed.
The ACC has frozen about Tk 5.25 crore from the duo's accounts.
On January 5, the ACC issued notices to seven people, including Nawsher and his wife Momtaz, to appear before it to face questioning on different dates over embezzlement of over Tk 3,500 crore from Peoples' Leasing.
In separate letters, ACC Deputy Director Gulshan Anowar Prodhan asked former chairman of Peoples' Leasing Motiur Rahman and its former director Arefin Shamsul Alamin to appear before it on Monday.
Nawsher, Momtaz and proprietor Sanjeeb Kumar Hawlader of MTB Marine were asked to appear before it yesterday.
Asked, ACC Director Gulshan Anowar told The Daily Star yesterday that none of the five people appeared. "They did not even inform us anything about their absence," he said.
Basudev and his wife Papia are supposed to face quizzing today.
Sources said these people used to be close cohorts of PK Halder, who allegedly laundered over Tk 10,000 crore abroad from four NBFIs.
Halder came to the limelight during anti-casino drives in 2019.
On January 8 last year, the anti-graft body filed a case against PK Halder on charges of illegally amassing wealth worth Tk 275 crore.
During the anti-casino drive, he fled the country.
Bangladesh police recently wrote to Interpol, requesting it to issue a red notice on him.
The government in July 2019 directed Bangladesh Bank to liquidate People's Leasing due to deterioration of its financial health for several years.
On January 3 this year, four depositors of People's Leasing described their plights and sufferings before the High Court for not getting back their money from PLFS.
They said they could not get back their money as PK Halder and his accomplices have embezzled a huge amount of money from the organisation and laundered it abroad.