Bangladesh Development Bank: ACC arrests former GM over Tk 174cr graft

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday arrested a former general manager of Bangladesh Development Bank Ltd (BDBL) in connection with a case filed over misappropriating about Tk 174 crore of the bank.

ACC Deputy Director Gulshan Anowar Prodhan arrested the accused, Syed Nurur Rahman Kadri, from Matsya Bhaban area in the afternoon.

On September 2, ACC filed the case with its integrated district office accusing 11 persons including Chairman of MM Vegetable Oil Products Hefazatur Rahman.

The other accused are: MM Vegetable Oil Products’ Managing Director Jahir Uddin; its directors Kamal Uddin, Kafil Uddin, Rafiq Uddin, Shafiq Uddin and Jasim Uddin; proprietor of Lucida Trading Mohammad Nasir Uddin Chowdhury; proprietor of Globe International Mahbubul Alam Chowhdury and BDBL’s former senior principal officer Dinesh Chandra Saha.

According to the case statement, MM Vegetable Oil Products Ltd, a subsidiary of Mostafa Group of Industries, has allegedly misappropriated around Tk 174 crore from BDBL using fake documents.

They set up a plant for soybean and palm oil at Bhatiari of Chattogram. The company showed that they imported raw materials for the plant from two organisations -- Globe International and Lucida Trading -- which were paper-based and had no existence, on June 21, 2012 through two separate letters of credit (LCs) worth around Tk 79.55 crore.

The bank officials okayed the loan without any verification.

Mostafa Group later transferred the money to their accounts in Trust Bank and Dhaka Bank and misappropriated the money.

The loan, including interest, now accrued to Tk 179 crore.