The Anti-Corruption Commission has failed to complete an inquiry into the non-funded part of the infamous Hallmark Group-Sonali Bank loan scam involving about Tk 1,200 crore, although 12 years have passed by now since the probe began.
The inquiry is still stuck with the ACC as the commission is not giving further instructions to the inquiry team to complete the probe, said an official involved with the inquiry.
鈥榃e submitted a summary to the commission after collecting the necessary data regarding the inquiry, but the commission did not give further directives for the next course of action,鈥� he added.
ACC secretary Khorsheda Yasmeen told 抖阴精品 that the commission continued the inquiry into the non-funded part of the scam.
The commission will take necessary measures based on the findings on completion of the inquiry, she added.
Under the non-funded part of the loan, at least 41 local and overseas banks issued facilities worth Tk 1,200 crore to the Hallmark Group upon acceptance of the Sonali Bank back-to-back letters of credit, said ACC officials.
The ACC started the inquiry in 2012 in the wake of a complaint that the Hallmark Group embezzled about Tk 3,700 crore from the Sonali Bank鈥檚 Hotel Sheraton branch through forged documents.
Later, the commission split the inquiry into two parts鈥攖he funded part and the non-funded part鈥攚ith the investigations of the 11 cases relating to the funded part concluded in October 2013.
In April 2014, the ACC stopped the probe on the plea that a series of correspondence was taking place between the Bangladesh Bank, Sonali Bank and the ACC for recovering the loan.
The inquiry resumed in February 2018 and was put on hold again for unknown reason.聽
The commission reconstituted the inquiry team for the third time in June 2020 to resume the inquiry into the non-funded part, led by then director Mir Joynul Abedin Shibli.
Later, deputy director SM Akter Hamid Bhuiyan was made head of the inquiry team following promotion of Shibli as director general of the commission in September 2022.
However, in early 2023, ACC deputy director Mashiur Rahman was made the new head of the inquiry team after the transfer Akter Hamid from the headquarters to the Dhaka office.
But, Mashiur was also transferred from the headquarters to the commission鈥檚 Gopalganj integrated district office last month.
With Mashiur the head of the inquiry team was changed at least for three times since 2020 with the probe making little progress.
About the cause of the delay, ACC officials explained that at least 41 banks issued facilities worth Tk 1,200 crore to the Hallmark Group upon acceptance of the Sonali Bank back-to-back LCs.
More than 250 officials from 132 branches of the 41 banks were involved in this regard, and all these officials would have been implicated if the commission took legal measures over the incident, said an inquiry officer.
鈥楾he ACC thinks that if it takes legal action against this huge number of bankers, it may impact the entire banking sector negatively. And so the commission has kept the inquiry on hold,鈥� he added.
A top ACC official said that the Bangladesh Bank has already paid most of the Tk 1,200 crore to the business entities as the central bank is bound to pay the amount since the process of the LCs was genuine, though the LCs were opened in the name of non-existent organisations and fake documents.
Meanwhile, on October 7, 2013, after completing the probe over the funded part of the loan scam, the ACC submitted a charge sheet against 25 officials of the Sonali Bank and Hallmark Group in 11 cases filed on October 4, 2012.
After trial, in March this year, Dhaka Special Judge Court-1 sentenced nine people, including Hallmark Group managing director Tanvir Mahmud and his wife and the group鈥檚 chairman Jasmine Islam, to life terms in jail in one of the 11 cases.
In the same case, the court also sentenced eight other people, including Sonali Bank former managing director Humayun Kabir, to different prison terms in the case.
This is just one of the 11 cases filed against Hallmark Group owners, officers and other officials of Sonali Bank in connection with the embezzlement of about Tk 3,700 crore from the state-owned entity. But the rest of the cases are still pending with the Dhaka Special Judge Court-1.
Contacted, ACC lawyer Mir Ahmed Ali Salam said that one of the 11 cases was completed, and trials in the rest of the cases were going on and would be completed soon.聽
In 2012, a Bangladesh Bank investigation unearthed that the Hallmark Group swindled Tk 3,648 crore from the state-owned Sonali Bank鈥檚 Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch.
The ACC, on receiving a letter from the Bangladesh Bank on July 15, 2012, formed a six-member inquiry team to probe the incident.
