The Anti-Corruption Commission has filed a case against 17 people, including former BASIC Bank Limited chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu and its former managing director Kazi Fakhrul Islam, on charges of embezzling Tk 30 crore by approving a loan to a fake company.
ACC deputy director Ranjit Kumar Kormokar filed the case on Thursday with its Dhaka-1integrated district office, said its deputy director for public relations Aktarul Islam on Friday.
The other accused are BASIC Bank Ltd former directors Subhashish Bose, Shyam Sundar Sikder, Nilufar Ahmed, Kamrun Nahar Ahmed, AKM Rezaur Rahman, AKM Kamrul Islam, Md Anwarul Islam, Anis Ahmed, company secretary Md Shah Alam Bhuiyan, general manager and branch manager Shiper Ahmed, deputy general manager Omar Faruq, credit in-charge SM Zahid Hasan, proprietor of 鈥楩our S Steel鈥� Md Masud Rana, the bank鈥檚 clients Kamal Hossain Selim and his wife Shahida Akhter Shimu.
According to the case statement, an account was opened in the name of 鈥楳/S Four S Steel鈥�, which is a shell company, at BASIC Bank鈥檚 Gulshan branch in March 2013, and within just three days, an application was submitted for Tk 50 crore loan.
Four S Steel owner Md Masud Rana in his application pledged to mortgage 18.15 katha of land in Badda area.
The branch credit committee, however, in its scrutiny initially flagged risks and concerns regarding the proposal.
But ignoring those objections, branch manager Shiper Ahmed forwarded the loan application to the bank鈥檚 head office using his discretionary authority.
On April 28 of the same year, a decision was made not to approve the loan due to various flaws and objections.
On June 10, then-managing director Kazi Fakhrul Islam presented the proposal during the bank鈥檚 323rd board meeting, chaired by Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu, where nine other directors were present. They approved a Tk 30-crore loan under conditional terms.
An anti-corruption commission inquiry later found clear violation of banking policies in the loan approval process.
On June 12, 2023, the ACC approved charge sheets against 147 people, including Bachchu, in connection with 59 cases over embezzlement and laundering money from Basic Bank.
All the 59 cases were filed in 2015.
Bachchu, also a former Jatiya Party lawmaker for the Bagerhat-1 constituency, and company secretary Shah Alam Bhuiyan were included as new accused in 58 of these cases鈥攄espite not being named in any of the cases when they were filed.聽
In February 2024, a special judge鈥檚 court in Dhaka ordered further investigation in 14 out of 59 cases filed against Bachchu and others.
In another case filed in April 2024, Bachchu, his family members and owner of Hotel Le M茅ridien Amin Ahmed were accused of concealing information of Tk 95 crore through a land purchase in Dhaka鈥檚 cantonment area, including evasion of Tk 8.5 crore in revenue.
On February 9 of this year, the ACC filed four cases against Bachchu and his family over allegations of illegally acquiring Tk 248 crore and laundering Tk 58 crore to Canada.
Bachchu鈥檚 wife Shirin Akhter, son Sheikh Sabid Hye Anik, and daughter Sheikh Rafa Hye have also been named as accused in three of the four cases.
