5 banks swindled
Controversial Bismillah Group, a producer of terry towel, has siphoned off around Tk 1,255 crore from five commercial banks, and its owner allegedly launched hotels and other businesses abroad with the laundered money, according to an Anti-Corruption Commission enquiry.
During interrogation, several bank officials involved in the scam told the ACC that Bismillah Group Managing Director Khaza Solaiman Anwar Chowdhury became a partner in a five-star hotel and four casinos, and built a house in Dubai with the laundered money.
"The bankers involved in the scam told the commission that Khaza Solaiman laundered the money to several countries, mainly to the United Arab Emirates to launch businesses there," said an ACC enquiry officer, wishing anonymity.
They told the ACC that Solaiman transferred money to the UAE bypassing the banking system. And he is believed to be hiding there now.
"We will file a case against the swindlers, and then seek help from the UAE authorities through MLAR [mutual legal assistance request] to conduct investigation there," said the officer.
The Group swindled the money with the help of some bank officials between June 2011 and July last year mostly through LTR [Loan against Trust Receipt] using names of fake foreign buyers and forged documents, found the enquiry.
Borrowers usually don't need to put their property as collateral to get loans from banks through LTR, as such loans are given on trust, provided that some documents are maintained, said ACC investigators.
In its report on the scam, Bangladesh Bank's Financial Integrity and Customer Services Department said, "The institutions [Bismillah Group and its sister concerns] in collaboration with bank officials prepared bills based on mere papers to create opportunity for misappropriating money through different banks."
Documents showed that no export items were shipped to the ports of delivery of the goods in the USA, Britain and other countries, said the report.
The ACC probe found some bank documents that had no addresses or names of the so-called foreign buyers, except for some fake signatures without date.
The ACC enquiry team led by its Deputy Director Syed Iqbal Hossain will soon submit its report to the commission seeking its permission to file a first information report [FIR] against the culprits, said ACC sources.
Apart from the Group's managing director, its chairman and directors, and around 50 officials of the five banks might be accused in the FIR, they said.
The controversial Group siphoned off Tk 627.27 crore from three branches of Janata Bank, Tk 303.01 crore from Prime Bank, Tk 163.79 crore from Jamuna Bank, Tk 102 crore from Shahjalal Bank and Tk 59.15 crore from Premier Bank, said the sources.
All the bank branches that disbursed the money are located in the capital.
Bismillah Group along with its several sister concerns, including Shaharish Composite Factory Ltd, Alpha Composite Towel Ltd, Shaharish KT Ltd, Hindul Wali Ltd and Bismillah Towel Ltd pulled off the loan scam, said the sources.
Solaiman, the key person of the Group, made his wife Nawrin Hasib its chairman, and appointed his mother-in-law Abida Hasib, father Shafiqul Anwar Chowdhury, sister Nahida Anwar Khan and brother-in-law Khandaker Mohammad Moin Uddin as its directors.
The ACC probe found that the chairman and directors hardly attended office, and Solaiman had faked their signatures on documents, said an ACC official, preferring anonymity.
During interrogation, Solaiman's sister Nahida told the ACC that she didn't know that she had been made a director of the Group, said the official.
The five-member ACC team launched an enquiry into the scam on February 26.
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