ACC grills ex-MD of AB Bank over money laundering

The Anti Corruption Commission yesterday interrogated AB Bank's former managing director Shamim Ahmed Chaudhury and former head of treasury Abu Hena Mustafa Kamal for their alleged involvement in laundering around Tk 165 crore in 2014.

On Thursday, the commission quizzed former chairman of the bank M Wahidul Haque and another managing director M Fazlur Rahman on the same issue.

The board of directors of the AB Bank in December 2013 approved investment of $20 million in Singapore-based fundraising and investment company Pinnacle Global Fund Pte Ltd through the bank's offshore banking unit (OBU).

In February 2014, the OBU laundered the money to an account at the UAE-based Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.

The account belonged to Cheng Bao General Trading LLC which acted as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) or a mediator for Pinnacle Global Fund. Cheng Bao immediately withdrew the money and closed the account.

It could not be known where the money went after the withdrawal, as the AB Bank has failed to give the BB any substantial documents on Cheng Bao and Pinnacle Global Fund.

The first generation private bank was also found to have signed the investment deal with Pinnacle Global Fund on a white paper, raising questions about the deal's effectiveness. A BB probe unearthed all this in an investigation in late October 2017. "So far the information we've gleaned from them is enough to file case against them. However, we're collecting more information," an ACC source told The Daily Star yesterday.