A Dhaka court has indicted 19 people, including Hallmark Chairman Jasmine Islam and Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud, in two out of 11 cases filed for swindling over Tk437 crore out of Sonali Bank.
Dhaka Metropolitan Session Judge Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah on Wednesday framed the charges for the first time after rejecting discharge petitions filed by seven of the accused.
The court also indicted Jasmine, who is now on bail, in another case filed over the same issue. It fixed March 3 for recording the depositions of the witnesses.
The BB investigation had earlier found that Sonali Bank's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch lent the Hallmark Group and five other companies Tk3,547 crore between 2010 and 2012, using fake documents.
Of the Tk3,547 crore, the Hallmark Group alone swindled Tk2,686.14 crore.
On October 4, 2012, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed 11 cases with Ramna police station against 27 top officials of Sonali Bank and Hallmark Group on charges of misappropriating over Tk1,568 crore.
On October 7, 2013, ACC submitted charge sheets against Jasmine, Tanvir and 23 others in 11 corruption cases.
Later, names of two Sonali Bank officials were dropped from the cases as they died after their arrest.
The bank fell into capital shortfall, while the large loans, taken through irregularities, went into default.
Then, the government injected around Tk2,000 crore in 2013, and Tk710 crore in 2014, for the survival of the bank.
However, despite large loans being written off, the bank showed high profits in 2014. In fact, the bank bagged an operating profit of Tk855 crore and net profit of Tk492 crore.