The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has lodged a case against former chairman of Farmers Bank Limited’s (FBL) audit committee, Mahbubul Haque Chisty, and his five associates for amassing illegal wealth.
ACC Deputy Director Shamsul Alam filed the case with a Dhaka court on Sunday.
The accused allegedly embezzled and amassed Tk29.51 crore misusing their power.
ACC spokesperson Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya said the anti-graft body approved the case in one of its regular meetings.
The other five accused are Chisty's son Rashedul Haque Chisty, MRS Laila Vanaspati Products Ltd Managing Director Shahabuddin Alam, and its Chairman Yasmin Alam, Farmers Bank Managing Director AKM Shameem, and its former additional managing director, AKM Shamim.
According to the case file, the accused have misappropriated Tk29.51 crore as loans without heeding banking rules and regulations.
Afterwards, they transferred the amount for the purpose of concealment, read the case statement.
The accused have been charged under section 406/409/109 of the Penal Code and section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
On December 19, 2017, Bangladesh Bank (BB) removed the managing director of Farmers Bank on charges of helping the bank’s board of directors engage in loan disbursement irregularities.
Farmers Bank was established in June 2013. In 2017, Bangladesh Bank's investigations found massive irregularities in the bank's loan disbursements, along with a large number of default loans.
Following the scandal, the bank was renamed Padma Bank in February 2019 to recover its image tarnished by irregularities and loan scams.
On April 10, 2018, the ACC arrested Farmers Bank's former chairman of the audit committee Mahbubul Haque Chisty in connection with embezzlement and irregularities in loan disbursement.
On December 11, 2019, the ACC approved five cases against Mahbubul Haque Chisty and his four family members for allegedly embezzling and amassing Tk135.4489 crore, misusing their authority.
