Swindling Tk 85.87 Crore: Hall-Mark chief arrested again

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday arrested Hall-Mark Group Chairman Jasmine Islam in a case of realising Tk85.87 crore from Janata Bank's Motijheel corporate branch against fake documents.

Jasmine, her husband and company's Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud, some of their employees and bankers have been facing 11 graft cases for swindling over Tk 2,600 crore out of Sonali Bank.

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The chairman, who had been on bail, was picked up from the city's Bangsal area yesterday, a day after the ACC filed the case with Motijheel Police Station, accusing 16 people.

The incident took place between June 2011 and June 2015.

According to the case statement, Tanvir and Jasmine introduced their employees Jahangir Alam and Mir Jakaria as owners of Anwara Spinning Mills and Max Spinning Mills and opened fake accounts with the corporate branch of the state-owned bank.

The ACC found only signboards of the two businesses on the compound of Hall-Mark Group. “No goods or machines were found. Actually, there is no existence of Anwara Spinning Mills and Max Spinning Mills,” reads the FIR.

Although the then manager of Sonali Bank's Ruposhi Bangla hotel branch AKM Azizur Rahman, assistant general manager Saiful Hasan and executive officer Abdul Matin knew about the non-existence of the two firms, they verified a back-to-back LC and the Janata Bank's corporate branch issued the LC for the two firms to import threads.

Threads were not supplied against the LC, but the fake owners of the mills submitted documents signed by Tanvir to Janata Bank claiming that Hall-Mark Group had received threads, says the case statement.

The duo then submitted a forged acceptance certificate on supply of threads and other fake documents to Janata Bank and withdrew Tk 85,87,33,616.

During the investigation, the ACC also found involvement of the corporate branch's assistant general managers SM Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal and Fayezur Rahman Bhuiyan, Executive Officer Jinia Jesmin, senior executive officers Abdullah Al Mahmud and Shakhawat Hossain, first assistant general managers Abdullah Al Mamun and Jesmin Akhtar, and Deputy General Manager Azmul Haque in the corruption.

The graft watchdog also revealed that Janata Bank adjusted the liability by liquidating some suspicious fixed deposit receipts (FDRs) although it was supposed to do this from foreign remittance.

Later, Janata Bank received money from Bangladesh Bank to adjust the liabilities on condition of repaying the amount if any fraudulent activity was detected.

The Bangladesh Bank in May 2012 had unearthed the over Tk 3,500 crore loan scam in Sonali Bank's Ruposhi Bangla hotel branch. Of the amount, Hall-Mark alone took Tk 2,686 crore against forged documents in connivance with some bankers.

The central bank later referred the matter to the ACC. On October 7, 2013, the graft watchdog pressed charges against 25 people in 11 cases for swindling over Tk 2,600 crore out of Sonali Bank.

On February 17 this year, a Special Judge's Court in Dhaka indicted 19 people, including Jasmine and Tanvir, in two out of the 11 cases.

WASA MD GRILLED

The ACC yesterday interrogated Dhaka Wasa Managing Director Taqsem A Khan in connection with alleged irregularities and corruption in its several projects.

Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya, public relations officer of ACC, said an ACC team led by its Director AKM Jayed Hossain grilled the Wasa MD for about two hours from 11:00am at Wasa Bhaban.

The graft watchdog also arrested Gazipur City Corporation Accountant Golam Kibria on charges of misappropriating about Tk 49 lakh against forged documents.

He faked vouchers in the names of several people and institutions to misappropriate Tk 49 lakh from a corporation fund meant for poor people, Pranab added.

The ACC had sued him in a case filed with Joydebpur Police Station on May 13.