7 bank officials, 4 businessmen sued over Tk190cr embezzlement

Anti-Corruption Commission ( ACC) has filed a case accusing four businessmen and seven state-owned Agrani Bank officials on charges of embezzling Tk190 crore as accumulated loan with principal and interest.

The bank officials are-- ex-principal officer of the Bank's Asadganj Branch Mostak Ahmed, ex-DGM of Ctg central region Md Abul Hossain Talukder, ex-GM of the Bank's head office Md Obayed Ullah Al Masud, ex-GM of Sylhet Circle Md Shams Ul Islam and ex-DGM Tajrina Ferdousi, ex-GM of Head Office Md Mofazzal Hossain and Bank's ex-MD and CEO Syed Abdul Hamid.

Businessmen who were implicated in the case are loan receiver Md Mizanur Rahman, proprietor of M/S Mizan Trading at Katunganj, and guarantors in favor of loan receiver and directors of the Jasmir Vegetable Oil Ltd, a sister concern of the Nurjahan Group, Zahir Ahmed, Tipu Sultan and Farhad Monowar.

ACC Deputy Director Subel Ahmed confirmed the lodging of the case with its local office.

Deputy Assistant Director of ACC Chattogram Integrated Office-1 accusing them to disburse loan against foreign LC violating Bangladesh Bank regulations and thus misappropriated the amount in connivance, he said.

According to the case statement, ACC in its investigation revealed that Agrani Bank's Asadganj Branch had opened a Letter of Credit valuing Tk 126.11 crore and 52,000 in favor of M/S Mizan Traders to import chickpeas and wheat on the basis of recommendations of five officials of the Bank's head office although the actual loan receiver was not a trusted client and not fulfilled required pre-conditions of getting the loan against foreign
LC.

The businessmen were accused in the case as they were also signatory of the loan sanction letter as guarantor.

The Bank finally disbursed Tk 51 crore out of entire LC value Tk126.11 crore and 52,000 and as the loan amount has not been paid within due time, the actual loan amount has now stood at around Tk190 crore with interest.

The ACC brought the allegation against the accused persons under Sections 409 and 109 of the Bangladesh Penal Code and Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.