Sonali Loan Scam<\/em>
\nHall-Mark MD arrested after daylong drive<\/strong>
\nTanvir Mahmud, managing director of Hall-Mark Group, and another top official of the controversial firm, were nabbed by the Rapid Action Battalion last night in the
\ncapital’s Pallabi in connection with the Sonali Bank loan scam.
\nThe other official is Tushar Ahmed, general manager (commercial), also husband of Tanvir’s sister-in-law.
\n“We arrested them around 9:30pm from a house at Section-6 of Mirpur,\u201d Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan, Rab’s intelligence wing director, told The Daily Star.
\nTanvir was hiding in a flat owned by one Shamsuddin Doha, a relative of Tanvir, he said.
\nRab’s media and legal wing Director Capt M Sohail said the force had also recovered a foreign pistol, four bullets and a magazine from Tanvir’s possession.
\nIt could not be immediately confirmed whether the gun was licensed.
\nRab said it would hand over the duo to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) authorities.
\nTanvir dodged the law enforcers in the early hours yesterday when more than 100 personnel from Rab, police and the ACC conducted a three-hour drive in the company’s
\nfactories in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital. The drive started at 2:00am.
\nTanvir was arrested on a request from the ACC, which filed 11 cases on October 4 with Ramna Police Station against 27 officials of Hall-Mark and state-owned Sonali
\nBank for misappropriating Tk 1,568 crore.
\nThe cases were filed under the Money Laundering Prevention Act and the Corruption Prevention Act.
\nOf the accused, seven are Hall-Mark officials, including Tanvir, while the rest are Sonali Bank officials, including its former managing director Humayun Kabir.
\nTalking to The Daily Star about their failure in the first drive to arrest Tanvir, Lt Col Ziaul said the elite force had faced obstacles on the road near the factories
\nin Savar as two vehicles were left abandoned there.
\n\u201cIt delayed our operation and by then, Tanvir had fled through an alternative way.
\n“We found three women in Tanvir’s room and more than 30 others in another. We also saw a huge quantity of liquor there. But we neither arrested the women nor seized
\nanything as our first priority was to nab Tanvir,\u201d he added.
\nHe also expressed surprise over the security arrangements in and around the factories. There were several hundred private security personnel under the company \u201cHall-
\nMark Patrol\u201d in addition to 350 Ansar personnel.
\nAccording to an audit report, the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch of Sonali Bank had disbursed Tk 3,606 crore in loan to Hall-Mark Group and five other companies defying
\nbanking rules.
\nThe Bangladesh Bank also revealed massive irregularities in the sanctioning and disbursing of loans, especially to the little-known Hall-Mark Group.
\nCOURT ASKS ACC REPORTS
\nMeanwhile, a Dhaka court yesterday asked the investigation officers of the ACC to submit the probe reports of all the 11 cases by November 16.
\nAlso yesterday, the High Court adjourned for two weeks the hearing on a writ petition that sought its directive on the government for recovering the loan.
\nSupreme Court lawyer Eunus Ali Akond filed the petition on September 17 with the HC, seeking its order on the authorities concerned to confiscate the assets of the
\ncompanies for their failure to refund the money.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of The Daily Star<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sonali Loan Scam Hall-Mark MD arrested after daylong drive Tanvir Mahmud, managing director of Hall-Mark Group, and another top official of the controversial firm, were nabbed by the Rapid Action Battalion last night in the capital’s Pallabi in connection with the Sonali Bank loan scam. The other official is Tushar Ahmed, general manager (commercial), also … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[8654,9518,8845,8889],"yoast_head":"\n