Bacchu's company account under ACC scanner

The Anti-Corruption Commission has started investigations into the financial transaction of an account named Eden Fisharies that is owned by the disgraced former BASIC Bank Chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu.

Bacchu, who joined BASIC in September 2009, registered Eden Fisharies with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms as a business entity in December 2010.

Despite no business activity, the company account saw a total of Tk 13 crore deposited in it between 2012 and 2013, according to a bank statement. The Daily Star has obtained a copy of the statement.

"ACC will investigate the source of money that went into the account," said Pranab Kumar Bhattacharjee, deputy director of ACC.

Bacchu opened the company listing his family members -- wife Shiekh Shirin Akhter, daughter Sheikh Rafa Hye and son Sheikh Abdul Hye Anik -- as directors, according to the RJSC. 

The office address provided to the RJSC was: 42/1-Ka, Jahan Plaza, 3rd floor, Shegunbagicha, Dhaka. But, no office was found at the address.

Then another address was used to open the bank account with the Motijheel branch of a foreign bank: House-2/2A, Road-4, Flat-2-5A, DOHS (OLD), Banani, Dhaka.

It turned out to be the residential address of Bacchu, who was forced to step down from his role at BASIC in July 2014.

The account is now under the scanner of the ACC. The bank statement shows a large number of transactions in the account between September 2012 and August 2013.

In February 2013, more than Tk 3 crore entered the account by way of cheques and cash deposits.

On May 16, 2013, a total Tk 5 crore was deposited through two cheques. Two days later, Tk 1 crore was withdrawn.

An inspection conducted by the Bangladesh Bank in 2013 found irregularities in approving loans amounting to Tk 4,500 crore in four branches of BASIC Bank between December 2009 and November 2012. A part of the sum ended up in two bank accounts of two firms owned by Bacchu's younger brother Sheikh Shahriar Panna.

This came to light through the findings of an investigation conducted by the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, the anti-money laundering unit of the central bank, in 2014.