ACC team will submit probe report by mid-July

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Md Shah Jahan The investigation team of Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) is likely to submit its report by the middle of the next month (July) on the Bismillah Group's alleged embezzlement of Tk 11 billion from five banks. The ACC team already has completed the investigation into the loan scam and the work on report preparation is going on, ACC sources related to the investigation told The Financial Express Tuesday. "The probe has been completed and report is being prepared for submitting to the ACC chairman in the middle of the next month," an investigation officer said on condition of anonymity. Bismillah Group, a terry towel company, swindled about Tk 11 billion from state-owned Janata Bank and four private commercial banks - Prime Bank, Shahjalal Islami Bank, Jamuna Bank and Premier Bank, a Bangladesh Bank (BB) report said. Last year, a BB inspection found Bismillah Towels Ltd, Hindul Wali Textile Ltd, and Alpha Composite Towels Ltd, all concerns of the Bismillah Group, were engaged in defrauding the banks from 2010 to 2012. Irregularities included securing cash incentives against fake export documents, taking advantage of inland bills purchases and overpricing non-existing export items. The Group swindled about Tk 3.92 billion from Janata Bank, Tk 3.06 billion from Prime Bank, Tk 1.64 billion from Jamuna Bank, Tk 1.469 billion from Shahjalal Islami Bank and Tk 0.63 billion from Premier Bank. After the disclosure of the fraud allegation, the ACC formed a five- member investigation team on February 26 last, led by its Deputy Director Syed Iqbal Hossain to probe the loan scam allegations. The other members of the team are - Assistant Deputy Director Towfiqul Islam, Gulshan Anowar Prodhan, Deputy Assistant Director Sardar Manjur Ahmed and Md Al-Amin. The probe team reviewed documents from all five banks and found their involvement in the scam. The team interrogated 50 bank officials and some Bismillah Group men those were related to the loan scam. In their more than three months' investigation, the ACC team found different allegations and links between Bismillah Group officials and the five bank officials in committing the mischief. "It is one kind of mutual understanding to gobble up the public money. But all bank officials were not involved in the embezzlement process," an ACC official said. He said that it was a gross violation of banking rules and regulations. Bismillah Group Managing Director Khawaza Solaiman Anowar Chowdhury had close links with the five banks officials who helped him to get the big amount of loan. The probe report would recommend filing of cases against about 40 people-- bankers and Bismillah Group officials, sources said.