With a little help from his friends!
Proshanta Kumar Halder alias PK Halder had played tricks on four non-bank financial institutions in such a way that no one could suspect anything before around Tk 10,000 crore were siphoned from those.
Halder put his men at the helm of the financial institutions so that he could easily take loans from those and misappropriate the funds.
This was stated in a confessional statement by Uzzal Kumar Nandi, chairman of People's Leasing and Financial Services (PLFS), one of the four financial institutions defrauded by Halder.
Halder took loans from the financial institutions against at least two dozen non-existent companies created by him. In some cases, he used part of the funds to repay instalments of loans taken against his several fictitious firms.
Halder used the tricks to conceal misappropriation of the funds, Uzzal said in his confessional statement to a metropolitan magistrate in Dhaka on Monday.
Earlier this month, Rashedul Haque, former managing director of International Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (ILFSL) from which Halder and his cohorts siphoned around Tk 2,500 crore, gave his confessional statement to a Dhaka court.
Rashedul admitted that he had disbursed crores of taka as loan to a number of non-existent companies as per Halder's directive.
Halder came under the spotlight during the anti-casino drives in the country in 2019.
He and his accomplices siphoned around Tk 10,000 crore from four financial institutions -- PLFS, ILFSL, FAS Finance, and Reliance Finance -- between 2009 and 2019.
The four institutions have been in dire straits since then, and one of those -- PLFS -- is now in the process of liquidation.
A number of banks are also facing difficulties in recovering their funds deposited with three of the financial institutions.
For instance, private lender Bangladesh Commerce Bank and state-run Janata Bank kept several hundred crores of taka with PLFS, FAS Finance and ILFS a few years ago.
The two banks requested Bangladesh Bank to intervene to help them get the money. But the BB is yet to act in this regard.
In his statement, Uzzal said, "I did not actually have the capacity to become the PLFS chairman. But Halder put me in the position so that he could control the institution to embezzle money."
Halder, who is now in Canada, was allegedly involved in embezzlement of around Tk 3,000 crore from PLFS.
Uzzal alleged that Halder persuaded Capt (retd) Moazzam Hossain, who served as PLFS chairman between 2013 and 2015, to leave the post by giving him Tk 12 crore in bribe.
"He [Moazzam] left the post and I assumed the position in 2015."
Uzzal started his career at Industrial and Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited, a non-bank financial institution, in 2008.
He joined Golden Insurance as its chief financial officer in 2010.
Uzzal left the firm in 2013. He got close to Halder while working as a freelance consultant. Halder was managing director of Reliance Finance at that time.
Before his appointment as the PLFS chairman, Halder made Uzzal chairman of Northern Jute Manufacturing Company in 2013.
Northern Jute took a loan of Tk 38 crore from ILFSL in 2016. Of the amount, Tk 16.81 crore was used to adjust loans taken by two of Halder's non-existent companies -- Borno and Arabi Enterprise -- from Reliance Finance, according to Uzzal.
The rest of the fund was transferred to Northern Jute's account with Karwanbazar branch of Shahjalal Islami Bank. Later, the money was transferred to different accounts belonging to Halder and his associates, he mentioned.
"The loan was never repaid.
"Halder paid me Tk 5 lakh as monthly salary. I could not realise then that he would use me for loan forgery," Uzzal claimed.
The Anti-Corruption Commission arrested Uzzal on January 25. The following day, ACC Deputy Director Gulshan Anowar Prodhan filed five cases against 33 people, including Halder and Uzzal, for laundering over Tk 350 crore from ILFSL.
In his statement, Uzzal said that upon Halder's directive, he started disbursing funds in breach of the rules and regulations soon after his appointment as PLFS chairman.
For instance, he played a role in giving loans to Diya Shipping and MTB Marine -- two of Halder's non-existent companies.
"Later, I came to know that Diya Shipping existed only on paper and the money did not go to the accounts of Diya or MTB Marine," he said.
The funds were used to adjust loans taken by Halder's non-existent firms from FAS Finance.
Uzzal alleged that the PLFS board of directors, led by the then chairman Moazzam, had also been involved in the scams. The then board pocketed about Tk 111 crore by way of engineering PLFS' financial statements.
"To cover up the misdeed, a deputy governor and a general manager of the central bank and others were given Tk 1 crore a year between 2009 and 2015."
The total amount of bribe stood at Tk 6.5 crore, he said.
Contacted, Moazzam rejected the allegation of taking bribes from Halder.
"I did not take bribes. I sold my shares for Tk 15 crore. But I am yet to get Tk 6 crore of the amount. I have also served a legal notice to this end," he said.
Asked about bribes to BB officials to conceal anomalies during his tenure, he said, "The then MD, DMD and CFO [chief financial officer] of PLFS should be able to say about it. I was not involved in any such thing.
Moazzam also claimed that he had been trying to bring Uzzal and Halder to book by giving information to different agencies. "That is why they are trying to tarnish my image," he added.
In his confessional statement, Uzzal alleged that Shah Alam, the then general manager of the Department of Financial Institutions and Markets (DFIM), a BB wing responsible for monitoring non-bank financial institutions, was involved in the scams.
Shah Alam, an executive director of the BB, was relieved of his duties at the DFIM and the Department of Banking Inspection-2, on February 4 over his alleged links with Halder.
Contacted yesterday, he said, "What Uzzal said about me in the statement is completely baseless…"
He claimed that Uzzal tried to protect himself by giving misleading information.
"Uzzal gave the confessional statement describing episodes that took place between 2009 and 2015. But I joined the department as general manager in September 2013."
A general manager cannot make a big decision alone as it involves all the officials concerned ranging from assistant director to the governor, he said.
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