THE intentional delay to complete the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) probe of Hallmark Group loan scam with Sonali Bank in six years makes it clear to the citizens that the ACC is not interested to settle financial crimes but is rather being used as a political arm of the government. The embezzlement of Tk 1,500 crore by the little-known Hallmark Group from Sonali Bank unmasked the worst banking crisis of the country. The incident was the tip of a colossal loan-scam and embezzlement in the banking sector that eventually pushed the country’s banking sector into a crisis.
A six-member inquiry team led by ACC director Mir Joynul Abedin Shibli held no inquiries into the huge defalcation over the last two years as the ACC’s top brass showed no interest to complete the probes. However, some of the team members were either transferred to other sections or given promotions. As per a national daily, the ACC stopped the probes in April 2014 on the plea that a series of correspondences was taking place among Bangladesh Bank, Sonali Bank, and the ACC. The Hallmark Group had borrowed Taka 3,700 crore, including Tk 2,200 crore from the Sonali Bank’s Hotel Sheraton branch to fund its LCs and Tk 1,500 crore from the others to fund back-to-back LCs underwritten by the Sonali Bank. On October 7, 2013, the ACC submitted the charge-sheet against 25 officials of Sonali Bank and the Hallmark. The ACC began the probes in 2012.
The ACC’s reluctance recalls us the government’s softness to Hallmark and its reluctance to take punitive action. The Finance Minister’s exasperation in Parliament in 2015 over the government’s inability to take punitive action against loan scammers because of political backing is known. The Minister also admitted that public confidence in the financial sector has drastically fallen after the Hallmark and BASIC Bank scams, which has been observed in the recent spate of bank account closures.
As the loan scams set off a raging financial indiscipline in the entire sector, causing economic hemorrhage, the ACC and the government should put an emphasis in completing the probe to ensure justice. The PM’s intervention in ending the culture of impunity could not come any sooner.
