Orion chief gets life for embezzling Tk 6.7 crore

Obaidul Karim

A special court formed to adjudicate graft cases jailed Orion Group chief Obaidul Karim for life and five high-ups of Oriental Bank for different terms in a Tk 6.7 crore embezzlement case yesterday.
Four of the bankers were sentenced to three years imprisonment each, while another was given a one-year term.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case on February 1 for embezzling the amount, which is part of Tk 596.6 crore Obaidul siphoned off from 2003 through a unique "Adjustable Blocked Account (ABA)" created by the bank.
Obaidul, the majority shareholder of Oriental Bank, was also accused in another case filed on January 25 against 24 people for embezzling Tk 596.44 crore in connivance with his bank's high officials and some managers.
The bank filed the case on orders of Bangladesh Bank (BB) that acted upon instructions from the government high-ups.
The Orion chief was also fined Tk 6.7 crore, and will have to serve two years in prison if he failed to pay the sum.
The court also ordered the state to confiscate the amount of money deposited in a bank as a guarantee for getting the Jatrabari-Gulistan flyover work in the capital.
The four bankers sentenced to three years imprisonment are former senior vice-president Shah Mohammad Haroon, senior assistant vice-president AQ Mahmud Ullah, former assistant vice-president Mohammad Fazlur Rahman and assistant vice-president Neyamutullah.
Each of them was fined Tk 50,000, and would have to be three more months behind bars if they failed to pay it.
The official sentenced to one-year imprisonment is detained executive officer ANM Raqibul Islam who was also fined Tk 10,000, in default of which he would have to serve one more month in jail. He surrendered on October 23.
The court order says the verdict will take effect from the day of surrender or arrest of the convicts as the others are on the run.
The first Special Court, set up at the MP Hostel in Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban complex, of Judge Firoz Alam pronounced the verdict on Obaidul under section 409, and the other officials were sentenced under section 109 of the Penal Code.
The ACC filed the graft case with Motijheel Police Station against the four including Obaidul on charges of breach of trust, forgery, collaboration and misuse of authority for embezzling around Tk 6.7 crore from the principal branch of the Oriental Bank in Motijheel.
In the FIR (first information report), Obaidul has been identified as chairman of Belhasa and Associates.
The FIR said the accused embezzled Tk 6.7 crore in between June 26, 2005 and June 18, 2006 from the bank's principal branch.
MISAPPROPRIATION OF MONEY
A BB investigation shows the total Tk 596 crore embezzled by Obaidul was siphoned in the name of different business purposes including Belhasa Joint Venture, which was awarded contract for building Sayedabad-Gulistan flyover in the capital.
Obaidul, a very influential person having connections with the top level of BNP including its chairperson Khaleda Zia, is the managing director of Belhasa, which claims to be a UAE-based company.
He misappropriated the amount in connivance with his bank's high officials and some managers through a unique ABA.
The ABA was created with an outstanding amount of Tk 340 crore in the head office. The bank's book in 2005 showed Tk 165 crore as credit under this account and marked it as part of cumulative loss of the bank.
The BB investigation also found that between 2003 and June 2006, Bangshal branch issued 320 Inter-Branch Debit Advice (IBD) worth Tk 335.45 crore without any authorisation.
This money was then disbursed to current and investment accounts of various parties. A similar routine was followed in the four other branches.
After following this routine, the same money was transferred to different clients on the same day to create an illusion of business transactions. The probe found that these transactions were fictitious as many of the clients do not even exist.
The Tk 6.7 crore was part of the money received through this process.