The Sonali Bank decides its next course of action against the Hallmark Group today as the group ignored a notice seeking refund of a half of the money embezzled from
the bank’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch, officials said.
The Hallmark Group embezzled Tk 2,668.38 crore from the branch of Sonali Bank with forged documents.
The Sonali Bank on September 4 issued a letter asking the Hallmark Group to refund Tk 1,334.19 crore in cash by September 18.
Md Hafizur Rahman, deputy general manager of the Sonali Bank, told New Age that the Hallmark Group had not replied to the letter the bank sent till Tuesday, when the
15-day deadline for the refund expired.
He said that the bank would today announce its plan to have the money refunded by the group.
The Sonali Bank board decided to realise a half of the money in cash in 15 days after Hallmark’s managing director Tanvir Mahmud had told the media that his company
had taken 20 times the amount.
The finance ministry on September 10 asked the Sonali Bank to take legal action against the people involved in the misappropriation of money by Hallmark.
The bank, which had not filed a case against the Hallmark Group until September 18, suspended 20 of its officials and made two deputy managing directors officers on
special duty for their alleged involvement in the Hallmark Group’s misappropriation of money.
A Bangladesh Bank investigation showed that the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch of the Sonali Bank had lent the Hallmark Group and five other companies Tk 3,606.48 crore
between 2010 and May 2012 on the basis of forged documents.
The Hallmark Group embezzled the money with the connivance of some Sonali Bank officials.
Courtesy of New Age
