The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit has frozen the bank accounts of three individuals accused of embezzling funds by breaching the National Savings Certificates (NSC) server.
The move came on Thursday after Bangladesh Bank uncovered a major fraud involving the illegal encashment of a Tk 25 lakh savings certificate purchased from its Motijheel office.
Bangladesh Bank officials said that the victim, SM Rezvi, a senior officer at the Comptroller and Auditor General鈥檚 office, had not applied for encashment and did not receive any one-time password, OTP, suggesting that the fraud was committed through internal system manipulation.
The central bank has seized computers and removed three officials from its Motijheel office who had access to the NSC online system.
The finance ministry has also formed a separate investigation committee to identify lapses in the system.
In addition, the central bank lodged a criminal case with the Motijheel Police Station, naming four people 鈥� Arifur Rahman Mim of Dinajpur, Md Maruf Elahi of Dhaka, Al-Amin of Thakurgaon, and Mohiuddin Ahmed of Sirajganj 鈥� for their alleged involvement in the scam.
According to the case statement, Rezvi discovered the fraud on October 27 while filing his income tax return.
He found that his Tk 25 lakh savings certificate, purchased just two weeks earlier with a five-year maturity period, had been encashed without his consent.
He filed a complaint with Bangladesh Bank on October 29.
An internal investigation led by executive director Amzad Hossain Khan later revealed that the certificate was encashed on October 23.
Records showed that the victim鈥檚 registered mobile number had been changed on October 22, and the account-holding bank was switched to NRB Commercial Bank under the name of Arifur Rahman from Agrani Bank.
The money was withdrawn from NRBC Bank鈥檚 Shyamoli and Dhanmondi branches.
Further analysis found that Arifur Rahman鈥檚 withdrawal limit had been altered from Tk 2 lakh to Tk 10 lakh, allowing him to take out the stolen funds.
The central bank also intercepted another attempt to encash Tk聽50 lakh through two electronic fund transfers from Dutch-Bangla Bank, allegedly carried out by Maruf Elahi.
The withdrawal was blocked in time, preventing additional losses.
Bangladesh Bank said the fraudsters collaborated to gain unauthorised access to a user ID linked to the National Savings Department.
Officials noted that the breach comes at a time when many investors are changing their account-holding banks amid liquidity stress and the central bank鈥檚 plan to merge five Shariah-based banks.
The incident, the first of its kind, has raised serious concerns about the security of the National Savings Scheme Online Management System, which was introduced in 2019 to prevent irregularities in government savings instruments.
As of August, total outstanding savings certificates across banks and post offices stood at Tk 3,40,071 crore.
