Staff Reporter:
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a case against 11 people, including former Chairman of the IFIC Bank PLC Salman F Rahman and his son Shayan Fazlur Rahman, on charges of laundering Tk76 crore to the British Virgin Islands and Tk113.41 crore elsewhere.
They have also been sued for embezzling Tk33.64 crore from the IFIC Bank.
The ACC filed two cases against former MP from Bagerhat-1 Sheikh Helal Uddin and his wife Rupa Chowdhury for allegedly amassing illegal wealth worth Tk6.46 crore and Tk6.83 crore respectively.
ACC Director General and Spokesperson Md Akhtar Hossain said this during a media briefing at its Segunbagicha headquarters in the capital on Thursday.
He said loans were granted in the name of Index Power and Energy Limited, a company of the Beximco Group, resorting to fraud. One Jakia Tazin was shown as the managing director of the company, he said.
The accused violated the LC terms and opened an LC account with the IFIC Bank for bringing drawings and designs for Index Power and Energy (Unit-2) at a cost of $98.82 lakh or Tk76.39 crore from a fake company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
“Money laundering was committed by bringing paper instead of drawings and designs and thus the money was smuggled abroad,” said Akhtar.
Meanwhile, the accused were also sued for embezzling Tk33.64 crore by not paying the LC money to IFIC Bank even after eight years, creating a forced loan.
The case document also said the IFIC Bank management sanctioned Tk146.82 crore to Agro Index Ltd violating rules and without a mortgage and the loan payment deferral period was extended despite not paying loans.
Of the loan amount, Tk113,41,59,096 was diverted from the loan taken for the construction of the Hilsa processing factory and was laundered elsewhere.
According to the statement of the case filed against Helal, a cousin of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he was accused of amassing wealth worth Tk6,45,57,404 illegally and making unusual transactions of Tk53,54,43,451 through his seven bank accounts from 2015-2024.
The ACC filed a separate case against Helal and his wife as it has found proof of Rupa amassing illegal wealth worth Tk6,82,84,258.
