Basic Bank Loan Scams: ACC approves charge sheet against Bacchu
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has finally approved the charge sheet against former BASIC Bank Chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu and 146 others in connection with 59 cases filed over embezzlement of Tk 2,265 crore.
The commission, however, did not implicate the then-board members who were at the helm of the bank when the massive embezzlement took place between 2009 and 2013.
At that time, there were about 10 to 11 members on the board of the BASIC Bank and most of them were either running or former government employees.
Between 2009 and 2013, Tk 4,500 crore was swindled out of BASIC, once a healthy public bank. Of the sum, more than 95 percent was sanctioned by the board.
In 2015, the ACC filed 56 cases in connection with the scam, but curiously neither Bacchu nor any of the board members were named as accused although multiple probes indicated their involvement. Later, four cases were filed.
However, the charge sheet against Bacchu, a former member of the parliament, took eight years to come by.
The High Court on several occasions expressed its disappointment over the delay in completing probes into the cases.
The cases were probed by Mohammad Morshed Alam, a director of ACC; and Mohammad Ibrahim, Monaem Hossain, Mohammad Sirajul Haque, and Gulshan Anowar Prodhan, all deputy directors of ACC.
Of the 59 cases, Bacchu was made accused in 58 cases, according to officials with knowledge of the proceedings.
The ACC implicated 101 clients and 45 bank officials in the cases.
Among the bank officials, Kazi Faqurul Islam, former managing director of BASIC Bank, and Shah Alam Bhuiyan, company secretary, were also accused in the cases.
The ACC quizzed Bacchu five times. The commission also questioned all the directors of the then-board.
Asked why the other board members were not implicated, one of the investigating officers said: "Bacchu with the help of the then managing director and company secretary created fake documents and sanctioned a loan while keeping the board in the dark."
On July 14, 2014, Bangladesh Bank sent a 47-page report on the BASIC Bank scam to the ACC detailing how people embezzled money through shell companies and dubious accounts.
The report, which included a list of borrowers, gave a detailed account of how the loans were approved and the amounts were subsequently withdrawn in clear violations of the rules.
The board and its credit committee disregarded the negative observations made by the branches for several loan proposals and went on to approve those, the BB report said.
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