Hallmark-Sonali Scam
ACC approves charges against 25 people
The Anti-Corruption Commission on Monday approved 11 charge-sheets against 25 people for the embezzlement of Tk 1,568.39 crore from Sonali Bank’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch by Hallmark Group. The commission approved charges against 12 Hallmark Group executives and its associates including its managing director Tanvir Mahmud, his wife Jesmin Islam, also chairman of the group, and its general manager Tushar Ahmed, and 13 Sonali Bank officials including former managing director Humayun Kabir, ACC commissioner M Shahabuddin told reporters at his office.
He said that the commission probe team did not find any involvement of prime minister’s health affairs advisor Syed Modasser Ali with the Hallmark-Sonali Bank scam.
‘It’s true that Modasser Ali has a social relation with Hallmark Group, but he was not involved with the scam,’ he said.
The ACC commissioner also said that board of directors of Sonali Bank was also not involved with the scam. ‘If the embezzled money was loan they (board of directors) must know about it but it was a forgery, so they were not aware,’ Shahabuddin said.
About the probe report of a parliamentary sub-committee, he said that the committee failed to mention specific involvement of Modasser Ali.
‘We reviewed the report but the committee failed to find his (Modasser Ali’s) involvement,’ he said.
On November 7, 2012, a parliamentary probe committee found the frequent visits to Sonali Bank branch at Hotel Ruposhi Bangla by adviser Syed Modasser Ali as ‘quite unusual.’
It is quite unusual and unbecoming for an adviser holding the rank of a cabinet minister to visit a bank branch, said the committee members.
The commission framed charges against Hallmark Group managing director Tanvir Mahmud and his wife Jesmin Islam, also chairman of the group, and general manager Tushar Ahmed, its sister concern Anwar Spinning Mills managing director Zahangir Alam, Century International Limited managing director Ziaur Rahman, Max Spinning Mills managing director Mir Zakaria, Apparel Enterprise managing director Shahidul Islam, Star Spinning Mills’ owner M Jahangir Alam, T and Brothers’ director Taslim Hasan, Paragon Group’s
managing director Saiful Islam Raza, and Nakshi Knit and Composite Limited’s managing director Abdul Malek.
Charges were also framed against officials of Sonali Bank Ruposhi Bangla hotel branch including former assistant general manager AKM Azizur Rahman, suspended assistant general manager Saiful Hasan,
suspended executive officer Abdul Matin and senior executive officer Mehrunnisa Meri.
Officials of Sonali Bank head office against whom charges were framed are former managing director Humayun Kabir, deputy managing directors Mainul Haque and Atiqur Rahman, general managers (OSD) Nani Gopal Nath and Mir Mohidur Rahman, deputy general managers Sheikh Altaf Hossain and M Safiz Uddin Ahmed, and assistant general managers Kamrul Hossain Khan and Ezaz Ahmed.
The commission also framed charge against Tetul Jhara union parishad chairman Jamal Uddin Sarkar as he issued the trade licences in the name of the fake organisations to Hallmark Group.
Sonali Bank deputy general manager (OSD) Bhagaboti Majumder, assistant general manager Abul Hasan, Ruposhi Bangla Branch former senior officer Wahiduzzaman, general manager ANM Masrurul Huda Sirazi of Head Office, former general manager Sabita Siraz, deputy general manager Kaniz Fatema Chowdhury and assistant general managers M Khurshed Alam and Ashraf Ali Patwari were excluded from the cases.
On Thursday, the commission’s seven-member probe team led by its deputy director Mir Joynul Abdin Shibly submitted the reports to the commission after 11 months of investigation.
On October 4, 2012, the commission filed 11 cases against seven
executives of Hallmark Group and 20 officials of Sonali Bank.
Six officials of the commission filed the cases with the Ramna police for their alleged involvement in swindling over Tk 1,568.39 crore out of about Tk 2,686 crore embezzled from the Sonali Bank’s
Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch.
-With New Age input
