Former BASIC Bank chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu has been left out of the Anti-Corruption Commission’s entire process of investigations into the sensational swindling of over Tk 2,500 crore from the state owned bank by way of extending fictitious loans to little known and non-existent borrowers.
The ACC had filed 56 cases into the numerous swindling that took place from 2009 to 2012, virtually shattering BASIC Bank, when Bacchu was it chairman enjoying full political backing.
BASIC was known as a sound bank until Bacchu took the charge.
ACC investigators told New Age that they completed investigations in five cases relating to the unprecedented bank swindling and recommended pressing charges against 40 suspects.
They, however, said Bacchu’s name did not feature among the 40.
They said it took them two years to complete the investigations into the five cases and that they submitted the probe reports in five cases relating to swindling of Tk 164.5 crore from three BASIC Bank branches in the capital.
Bacchu is a leader of Jatiya Party, a partner of the Awami League-led ruling coalition.
Replying to New Age, ACC secretary Abu M Mustafa Kamal said that the investigators found no involvement of Bacchu in the sensational loan scams.
He said that if the ACC chairman and the two commissioners accept the findings approval for submitting the charge-sheets against the 40 suspects would be given.
Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman said that the ACC would destroy its credibility if it keeps the prime suspect out of the dragnet.
The main suspects in the five cases include former BASIC Bank managing director Kazi Fakhrul Islam, deputy managing directors M Selim, Emdadul Haque, Kanak Kumar Purkayastha and Fazlul Sobhan, general manager Mohammed Ali Chowdhury, assistant general manager M Ashrafuzzaman, credit committee member secretary A Monayem Khan, general managers M Moniruzzaman and Shahjahan Molla, deputy general manager Khan Iqbal Hasan, former Shantinagar branch manager M Jalal Uddin, former assistant general manager SM Anisur Rahman Chowdhury, former Gulshan branch manager Shipper Ahmed and former local office manager Mohammad Ali, owners of M/s Seen Text, M/s Farshi International, Syed Real Estate and Developers Ltd, M/s Reliance Shipping and Emerald Dresses Ltd, said ACC officials.
ACC investigators also recommended pressing charges against an unspecified number of private surveyors.
They said that the money was swindled using a large fake letters of credit.
The huge sums were embezzled from the Shantinagar, Gulshan branches and the local office of BASIC Bank.
In September 2015, the ACC drew severe criticism for leaving former BASIC Bank chairman Bacchu outside the purview of the 56 cases it had filed over the systematic swindling of bank money.
Former adviser to caretaker government M Hafizuddin Khan said that the ACC investigation lacked credibility as such loan scams could not occur without the involvement of the bank chairman.
On March 28, while addressing an ACC programme at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, finance minister AMA Muhith said that during its own investigations the finance ministry found that Bacchu was involved with BASIC Bank’s loan scam.
On February 23, 2016, Muhit in a written statement told Parliament that Bacchu was also involved with illegally appointing and promoting BASIC Bank officers and staff.
Source: The New Age
