The Bangladesh Bank on Thursday removed Uttara Finance and Investments Limited Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer SM Shamsul Arefin for his involvement in loan irregularities in the non-bank financial institution (NBFI).
The central bank sent a letter on the same day to the chairman of the NBFI to take legal action against him.
In early 2021, the NBFI hit the headlines for loan irregularities involving about Tk 6,000 crore, putting depositors’ money at risk.
The central bank unearthed the irregularities while inspecting the financial reports of Uttara Finance until 2020.
The irregularities include lending money to the director’s company without paperwork and paying huge amounts of cash to its chairman for no concrete reason.
Apart from these, the central bank also revealed other irregularities such as creating fake loans to withdraw Tk 335 crore for Uttara Group and the managing director’s involvement in taking out money without any approval.
