The Anti-Corruption Commission on Wednesday filed three cases against 15 people, including S Alam Group chairman Mohammed Saiful Alam and Reliance Finance Limited former managing director Prashanta Kumar Halder, on charges of embezzling Tk 270 crore through fraudulent loans and money laundering.
Commission deputy director Tahsin Munabil Haque filed the cases with its Dhaka-1 Integrated District Office, said its assistant director Tanjir Hossain.
Of the 15 accused, 12, including Saiful Alam, who is also former chairman of Reliance Finance Limited, and PK Halder, are accused in all the three cases.
According to the statement of the first case, 13 people face allegations of embezzling Tk 94.63 crore from Reliance Finance Limited (now Aviva Finance) through securing loan with fake documents in the name of a shell company, M/S Mostafa and Company.
The case statement also alleges that Tk 32.50 crore from the Tk 94.63 crore loan was syphoned off to S Alam Super Edible Oil Limited, a concern of S Alam Group.
The second case also has 13 accused, including Saiful Alam and PK Halder, who face charges of embezzling Tk 104.20 crore from Reliance Finance Limited using fraudulent documents for securing loans in the name of another shell company, M/S A. M. Trading.
The case also brings allegations that from the Tk 104.20 crore loan, Tk 34 crore was laundered to S Alam Super Edible Oil Ltd.
The third case also has 13 accused facing allegations of embezzling Tk 71.51 crore from Reliance Finance Ltd through loan forgery in the name of M/S Saiful and Company.
The other accused are Abdus Samad, vice chairman of S Alam Group; Md Abdullah Hasan and Shahana Ferdous, directors of S Alam Group; Rashedul Haque, former executive vice president and head of risk management of Reliance Finance Ltd; and Nahida Runai, former manager of the company; Kazi Ahmed Jamal, former senior vice president and credit committee member of the company; its former deputy manager Jumaratul Banna; Zahir Ahmed, former managing director, Marine Vegetable Oils Ltd;聽 Tipu Sultan and Md Ishaq, directors of Marine Vegetable Oils Ltd; Md Golam Mostafa, owner M/S Mostafa and Company; Kabir Ahmed, owner, M/S A.M. Trading; and Saiful Islam, owner, M/S Saiful and Co.
The acts of money embezzlement by the accused took place between 2013 and 2024 in Dhaka and Chattogram, said the case statements.
ACC director general (prevention) Akhtar Hossain said that the accused abused their positions of power and, in collusion with each other, embezzled the money through taking loans with fake documents in the names of fake organisations.
They also laundered large sums of money, which was a violation of the anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws, he added.
S Alam Group chairman Saiful Alam, who is also facing a number of corruption allegations, including money laundering and amassing illegal wealth, is now abroad.
PK Halder who fled the country, was arrested on May 14, 2022 from Ashoknagar in West Bengal of India by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of money laundering.
Halder walked out of jail after a special court in Kolkata granted him bail on December 25, 2024, after two and a half years since his arrest in the money laundering case.
