Staff Reporter :
Sonali Bank, the country’s largest state-owned bank, has written off Tk 2,086 crore loans of its 23 clients last year as the bank authorities did not find any possibility to get the money back, official sources said.
Hallmark Group was one of the fortunate clients that also secured the loan written off facility from the bank.
Earlier, a central bank investigation had found that Sonali Bank’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch provided Tk Tk 3,547 crore loans to Hallmark Group and five other companies in between 2010 and 2012 on fake documents.
Of the total amount, Hallmark Group alone swindled Tk 2,686.14 crore.
The approval came at the 35th Executive Committee (EC) meeting of Sonali Bank recently.
At the meeting, the bank’s board approved writing off total loans of Tk 2,086 crore provided to a total of its 23
clients, including Hallmark group, insiders of the bank said.
Of the amount, Tk 1,700 crore was written off against the loans of Hallmark Group from Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch.
Earlier, Sonali bank filed cases against Hallmark Group as it failed to get buyers for the mortgaged assets of the company.
Apart from the loan writing off, the Sonali Bank rescheduled loans of a total Tk 2,756 crore in the year 2013 and 2014.
