Farmers Bank: Another scam involving Chisty's son unearthed
Scam-hit Farmers Bank's Tangail Branch was inaugurated on July 24 last year and on that day it set off its journey with a suspicious transaction done by a paper-only organisation owned by Rashedul Haque Chisty, son of the Bank's former audit committee chairman Mahabubul Haque Chisty.
About Tk 4 crore was transferred from the bank's Bakshiganj Branch in Jamalpur to a current account of RCL Plastic Industries owned by Rashedul. The account was opened with the Tangail branch on that day.
In its enquiry, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has unearthed suspicious transaction of about Tk 9.28 crore by Rashedul with the help of bank officials.
Yesterday, ACC filed a case with Tangail Model Police Station and arrested Ferdous Jubayet Islam Bhuiyan, proprietor of S2RS Corporation, form Dhaka's Segunbagicha area in this connection.
Two other accused in the case are Shajli Shabnam, executive officer of Farmers Bank's Gulshan Branch, and Sohel Rana, assistant officer of the bank's Bogra Branch.
According to the case statement, Rashedul is proprietor of RCL Plastic Industries, which “exists only on paper”. Also, the depositors did not give any declaration over the source of the money (Tk 4 crore).
According to a Bangladesh Bank circular, there should be a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) on such transactions but the then Tangail branch manager Shajli Shabnam did not do so.
On July 25, 2017, another Short Notice Deposit (SND) account was opened under the name of RCL Plastic and Tk 4 crore was transferred there from the current account -- closed the same day.
“Persons concerned could not give any specific reason to the ACC behind the closure of the current account,” reads the statement.
On October 29, about Tk 54 lakh was deposited in the SND account from the bank's Mirpur branch. On November 26 and 27, TK 2.64 crore and Tk 2.10 crore were also deposited. The then bank manager and assistant officer did not file any STR.
Money was withdrawn from the SND account at different times and the balance was Tk 5.38 crore on November 27.
The same day, a current account was opened under RCL Plastic and all the money was transferred there. Rashedul closed his SND account on December 5.
The next day, about Tk 5.40 crore was withdrawn through 12 cheques, each worth Tk 45 lakh, from the bank and the money was deposited in the loan account of S2RS Corporation -- a client of the Farmers Bank's Gulshan Corporate Branch.
S2RS Corporation later paid Tk 5.40 crore to buy share for Rashedul.
On April 10 this year, ACC arrested Mahabubul Haque Chisty, his son Rashedul and two officials of Farmers Bank in connection with another case filed for laundering over Tk 160 crore. They were later sent to jail.