Staff Reporter :
A group of swindlers have allegedly siphoned off Tk 11,000 crore from the country’s nine non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) forming unholy nexus with some officials of those institutions.
The misappropriation of the funds spotted in the audit reports were carried out by key government regulators viz. Bangladesh Bank (BB) and Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).
These reports on six leasing and three insurance companies have been sent to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for investigation.
According to the report, the leasing companies had sanctioned loan to the fake business firms which exist on papers only. As a result, the non-bank financial institutions did not get the money back.
On the other hand, a large sum of funds were swindled from the three insurance companies by using fake bill vouchers. The high officials of the companies were accused of in such illegal acts.
According to the reports, Tk 51 crore were embezzled from the Prime Finance and Investment Limited in the name of loan, while it sanctioned Tk 442 crore loan to a company which connected board members.
Besides, in the audit report of BSEC it was seen that clients of Fareast Islami Life Insurance Company deposited Tk 2,100 crore in it from 2010-2022. But no exact information of the fund was found during conducting the audit.
According to documents, Tk 703 crore was misappropriated from Bangladesh Industrial Finance Company Limited (BIFC) in the name of loan, Tk 2,400 crore from International Leasing, Tk 400 crore from Peoples’ Leasing, Tk 1,200 crore from FAS Finance, Tk 1,300 crore from Fareast Finance and Tk 550 crore from Prime Finance.
The ACC’s is now probing on these incidents of fund embezzlement.
ACC is also continuing its proceeding over the allegation of siphoning off Tk 3000 Crore from Delta Life Insurance, Tk 2,100 crore from Fareast Islami Life Insurance and Tk 1.6 crore from state-owned Jibon Bima Corporation.
ACC Commissioner (Enquiry) Dr. Md. Mozammel Haque Khan said reports of widespread irregularities and corruption in NBFIs are emerging. Misappropriation of funds from these financial institutions has created mistrust among people and their clients.
“As we have seen recently, people are losing confidence in these institutions, we need to make sure that swindlers are to be punished to restore people’s confidence on the sector.”
Economist Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur said it is very difficult to return transparency to the financial sector without making any exemplary punishment to the fraudsters.
“If we want to expose corruption, the BB, Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IDRA) and the ACC need to work together. At the same time, we need to think of ways to punish the perpetrators through an acceptable justice system,” he added.
The ACC officials said some of the suspects have been banned from travelling abroad.
