Pro-active move needed in case of Hall-Mark scam

The loan scam involving the state-owned Sonali Bank took the banking sector by storm. Later on, we came to know about many more, which were not only financial scams but also amounted to robbery that saw swindling out big sums of money from some other banks in Bangladesh by several individuals and groups. The Bismillah Group scam and the Basic Bank scam are just two of them. The Hall-Mark loan scandal involving the Sonali Bank is surely one of the most publicised ones while for unknown reasons the Basic Bank scam, in which the top brass of the state-owned financial institution visibly looted public money, failed to interest the media that much.
It was reported in a section of the local press that two bigwigs of the controversial multi-level marketing (MLM) company Destiny 2000 Limited were getting bail from the High Court soon, although they cheated more than 4.0 million people. If a fraudster of an MLM company can be enlarged on bail, then why should an entrepreneur like Tanvir Mahmud of Hall-Mark be in jail, though he has a big industrial project at Savar off the city and other immovable properties to cover the amount of money his company borrowed from the Sonali Bank? Will it help resolve the Hall-Mark issue, if Tanvir is simply held in jail? In this case, the option for recovering the money is open. Tanvir Mahmud can be made to dispense with his property for recovery of the bank's money. Now it is up to the policymakers of the government to take a right decision without further delay.
Jenny Choyonika
Kakrail, Dhaka - 1000.
hafizpasha1@gmail.com