The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is dillydallying with the submission of its probe report into the embezzlement of Tk37bn from Sonali Bank’s Ruposhi Bangla Branch by the Hall-Mark Group and its five business entities.
The commission is playing a game of hide and seek with the investigation and is giving the media “false dates.” It has consistently avoided giving any exact date for the publishing of the report and has also failed to accomplish the tasks within the announced timeframe.
The ACC, after 11 months, is yet to file the probe report. However, a progress report on the scam was submitted to the commission in July.
ACC Secretary Faizur Rahman Chowdhury on August 22 told journalists that the commission would submit the probe report “within the next week.” However, the commission failed to submit the report within that time.
Earlier, on July 24, Chairman M Bodiuzzaman, at an informal briefing, told the media that the investigation team would submit the charge sheet before the commission “within next 15 days.”
On March 27, former chairman Ghulam Rahman told journalists that the commission would submit the charge sheet “within a few days.”
Faizur Saturday told the Dhaka Tribune that he could not make any comment on the issue. “I do not know the reason behind the delay. So far as I know, the probe report was already submitted to the commission, and is now awaiting the commission’s approval.”
The Dhaka Tribune tried to contact the commission chairman for comment, but his mobile phone was switched off. Following a letter from Bangladesh Bank on July 15 last year, the anti-graft agency formed a six-member probe committee to conduct an inquiry into the allegations of a loan scam against the little known firm.
According to an investigation report the central bank released in May last year, Hall-Mark and the five other companies, with the connivance of a number of Sonali Bank officials, had taken out loans for Tk35.5bn from the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch of Sonali Bank using forged documents.
Of the money, Hall-Mark alone swindled around Tk26bn while its business entities individually swindled billions more T and Brother, Tk6.09bn Paragon Group Tk1.46bn- Nakshi Knit Tk660m DN Sports Tk330m Khanjahan Ali, around Tk5m.
On the basis of several petitions filed by the ACC, the court on June 26 ordered the freezing of all of the 260 bank accounts of the various Hall-Mark businesses.
During investigation, the ACC on October 4 last year filed 11 cases against seven top executives of Hall-Mark Group and 20 officials of Sonali Bank for embezzling Tk15.7bn of funded money and approximately Tk12.8bn of non-funded money.