Company owners Tanvir-Jasmine couple among nine jailed for life

Hallmark Group owners Tanvir Mahmud-Jasmine Islam couple and seven others have been jailed for life as maximum punishment for swindling over Tk 105 million out of Sonali Bank.
Judge of Dhaka Special Judge's Court Abul Kashem delivered Tuesday the verdict, also sentencing former Managing Director of Sonali Bank Humayun Kabir and seven others to different terms of imprisonment in the much-talked-about cases of loan scam.

Hallmark Managing Director Tanvir and his wife Jasmine, Chairperson of the company, were also fined Tk 50 million each as pecuniary penalty.
The court also awarded them seven years' rigorous imprisonment under another section of the penal code and fined each of them Tk 2.5 million.
"Both the sentences will run concurrently," the court says in its verdict.
The other lifers are former Sonali Bank officials Md Saiful Hasan and Mohammad Abdul Matin, Hallmark Group General Manager Tushar Ahamed, Max Spinning Mills' owner Mir Zakaria, Paragon Group Managing Director Md Saiful Islam Raza, Nakshi Knit Managing Director Md Abdul Malek and T & Brothers' Director Md Taslim Hasan.

The seven convicts were also fined Tk 1.0 million each. They were also sentenced to serve seven years in prison under another section of the penal code and fined Tk 0.2 million each.
Among the remaining eight convicts, former Sonali Bank Senior Officer Meherunnisa Merry, General Manager Mir Mohidur Rahman, Deputy Managing Director Md Mainul Haque, Assistant General Manager Safizuddin Ahmed, Assistant General Manager Md Kamrul Hasan Khan, Managing Director Humayun Kabir, and General Manager Noni Gopal Nath were sentenced to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment and fined Tk 1.0 million each.
The court also sentenced them to seven years' rigorous imprisonment under another section of the penal code and fined Tk 0.2 million each.
Former Chairman of Savar's Tetuljhora Union Parishad Md Jamal Uddin Sarker has also been sentenced to serve five years behind bars and fined Tk 0.5 million for his complicity in the syndicated-lending fraud.
He was also sentenced to another two years' rigorous imprisonment and fined Tk .02 million under another section of the penal code.
The Tanvir-Jasmine couple, Tushar and five other convicts were present in the dock during the pronouncement of the verdict.
Saiful Islam Raza, Abdul Matin, Humayun Kabir, Noni Gopal Nath, Taslim Hasan, Saiful Hasan, Meherunnisa and Zakaria are absconding.
Md Jamal Uddin Sarker was granted bail earlier, so he did not appear in the court during the verdict.
Lawyer Mir Ahmed Ali Salam, who represented the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), said charges were framed against 20 persons in the case. However, three of the accused died during the trial.
The lawyer further said the sentences will run concurrently for the accused who were given different jail terms under different penal codes.
The court said in an observation, "The incident of this case is astonishing in the banking history of the country. Criminals who play with the country, people's deposits, banking system and the economy should be given death penalty."
But, the maximum sentence under the relevant law is life imprisonment. In this situation, it was decided to give life imprisonment to those directly involved in the crime.
The ACC filed the case on October 4 in 2012 with Ramna Police Station against Tanvir and others on a charge of money embezzlement. An allegation of embezzling Tk 105 million in total was brought against the accused in the case. The central bank, Bangladesh Bank, unearthed the Tk 35-billion loan scam in Sonali Bank's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch in the capital in May 2012.
Of the sum, Hallmark Group alone took Tk 26.86 billion through forged documents in connivance with some bank officials.
Later, the central bank handed over the issue to the ACC. Then, in October 2012, the anti-graft watchdog filed 11 cases against 27 top officials of Sonali Bank and Hallmark Group on charges of misappropriating over Tk 15.68 billion.
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