The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Thursday approved a charge sheet against 14 people including Bismillah Group chairman and managing director for their involvement in misappropriating Tk 591 million from Premier Bank Ltd.
The accused, in collusion with each other, embezzled Tk 591,547,429 from the bank from 2011 through 2012 taken as import bills through opening back to back letters of credit (LCs) against four export contracts.
The money was taken in the name of four concerns of Bismillah Group, namely-Bismillah Towels Group Ltd, Saharish Composite Towels Ltd, Alpha Composite Towels Ltd and Network Freight Systems Ltd.
The accused in the case include Bismillah Group managing director Khaza Soleiman Anwar Chowdhury, his wife and group chairman Nowrin Hasib, his father and company director Shafiqul Anwar Chowdhury.
Other defendants of the case were-Saharish Composite Towels director Sarwar Jahan; Bismillah Towels Group Ltd deputy managing director and authorised signatory Akbar Aziz Muttaki, general manager (commercial) Abul Hossain Chowdhury, manager Riaz Uddin Ahmed and Network Freight Systems chairman Aktar Hossain.
The six accused bankers were-former manager of Premier Bank's Motijheel branch Md Shahinur Rahman, the bank's first executive vice-presidents Ruhul Amin and Md Tanjibul Haq, vice-president Shahbuddin Sarker, former deputy manager GM Shahdat Hossain, and executive officer Abu Saleh Md Arifur Rahman.
The case was filed by former manager and senior executive vice-president of Premier Bank's Motijheel branch Md Idris Ali Fakir with Motijheel police station on January 20, 2013.
The case has been investigated by ACC assistant director Md Salauddin.
Earlier, the Commission had filed 12 cases against 54 people over the swindling of about Tk 9.90 billion out of a total of Tk 120 billion from five banks by Bismillah Group on November 3, 2013.
The cases were filed by ACC director Iqbal Hossain with Dhaka's Ramna, Motijheel and New Market police stations.
The Commission arrested 10 bankers in this connection while the Bismillah Group bosses had gone into hiding before it launched its inquiry in 2013.
In 2015, after completion of the investigation, the Commission had submitted the charge sheet in a case filed with the New Market police station against nine people on charge of laundering Tk 153 million.
After that a Dhaka court on September 10, 2018 sentenced nine Bismillah Group officials in the case, including Khaza Soleiman Anwar Chowdhury, Nowrin Hasib, and Shafiqul Anwar Chowdhury.
This was the first verdict among the 12 cases filed against Bismillah Group for money laundering and corruption.
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