The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) grilled on Sunday four former top officials of AB Bank including chairman M Wahidul Haque over alleged laundering of Tk 1.65 billion through two shady companies.
An ACC team led by its assistant director Gulshan Anwar Pradhan quizzed the former officials of the bank at the ACC headquarters in city's Segunbagicha starting from 10:00am till 4:00pm, according to ACC sources.
The other AB Bank officials were former managing directors M Fazlur Rahman and Shamim Ahmed Chaudhury and former head of financial institutions and treasury Abu Hena Mustafa Kamal.
ACC filed a case on the alleged money laundering with Motijheel police station against eight persons including these four on January 25.
The former head of AB Bank Offshore Banking Unit (OBU) in Chittagong Mohammad Lokman, senior vice-president M Nurul Azim and vice-president Mohammad Mahfuzul Islam and one of the bank's clients businessman Saiful Haque were also accused in the case.
After filing of the case, Wahidul Haque, Mustafa Kamal and Saiful Haque were arrested on the same day from different parts of the city while Wahidul Haque and Mustafa Kamal got bail after an hour of the arrest and Saiful Haque remained in the jail since then.
The former chairman Wahidul and managing director were interrogated for the first time on December 28, 2017 where Wahid admitted that he had been involved with money laundering, said ACC officials.
Mr Haque, along with the bank's vice chairman and a director, resigned from the bank's board of directors on December 21, 2017 as the graft allegations surfaced.
According to ACC's findings, the eight suspects laundered the sum in collusion with each other between September 2013 and February 2014.
AB Bank's board of directors approved investments worth Tk 1.65 billion in Dubai in December 2013 by Singapore-based fundraising and investment company Pinnacle Global Fund Pte Ltd through AB Bank's offshore banking unit.
However, ACC also interrogated newly-appointed chairman of AB Bank, MA Awal and one of its directors in this connection on January 8.
The ACC also quizzed six members of Board of Directors of AB Bank, country's first private commercial bank a day earlier over alleged laundering of Tk 1.65 billion.
Meanwhile, the court also imposed a ban on the travel of 16 senior officials of the bank.
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