A Dhaka court on Wednesday ordered relevant authorities to freeze all 260 bank accounts owned by the Hall-Mark Group.
Senior Special Judge Md Jahrul Haque passed the order, responding to eleven separate petitions filed by an assistant director of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the investigation officers of the cases, filed against the bosses of the group.
While taking part in the plea, ACC counsel Mir Ahmed Ali Salam said all bank accounts of the Hall-Mark Group need to be frozen for the sake of proper investigation into the cases.
The court ordered the freezing of Hall-Mark Group’s accounts at HSBC, Eastern Bank, AB Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, One Bank, BRAC Bank, City Bank, United Commercial Bank, Dutch Bangla Bank, Mercantile Bank, National Bank, Prime Bank, Agrani Bank, Sonali Bank, Premier Bank, Janata Bank, Islami Bank, Al-Arafah Islami Bank, Jamuna Bank, South East Bank, Dhaka Bank and also all accounts with the Eastern leasing and Finance Ltd.
The court ordered the managing directors and chief executive officers of these banks to freeze the accounts.
The investigation officers in the cases filed against the Hall-Mark Group told the court that the company laundered a total of Tk27bn through Sonali Bank’s branch in Ruposhi Bangla Hotel.
According to case details, the ACC on October 4, 2012, filed 11 cases against the seven bosses of the Hall-Mark Group and 20 officials of Sonali Bank, including the bank’s former managing director Humayun Kabir.