The Anti-Corruption Commission is likely to file a charge sheet this week against 25 people including Hall-Mark Group and Sonali Bank Limited officials for their alleged involvement in Tk15.7bn scam by the group and its entities from a branch of the bank.
Seeking anonymity, a member of the ACC probe committee on the scam, made the disclosure, adding that the charge sheet would be filed with a Dhaka court within a day or two.
Earlier on September 16, the ACC approved the filing of charge sheet after the commission declared the ACC probe report as satisfactory.
The accused in the case includes Hall-Mark Group Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud, his wife and Chairman Jasmine Islam, General Manager Tushar Ahmed, Sonali Bank former managing director Humayun Kabir, former manager of the bank’s Ruposhi Bangla branch AKM Azizur Rahman, and 20 other people.
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 swindled billions more.
Following a letter from Bangladesh Bank on July 15 last year, the ACC formed a six-member probe committee to conduct the inquiry.
On October 4 last year, the ACC filed 11 cases against seven top executives of Hall-Mark Group and 20 officials of Sonali Bank for embezzling Tk15.7bn of funded and around Tk12.8bn non-funded money from the bank’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch.
On the basis of several petitions filed by the ACC, a Dhaka Court on June 26 ordered the freezing of all the 260 bank accounts of the various Hall-Mark businesses.
