ILFSL mired in fraud from start to end

The International Leasing and Financial Services Limited (ILFSL) has only Tk 700 crore in assets against a loan portfolio of Tk 4,000 crore, its former managing director Syed Abed Hasan told a Dhaka court on Tuesday.

The leasing company raised the capital through a bevy of commission agents who worked in favour of investment for the company, Hasan confessed to Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court.

The loan of Tk 3,300 crore given out to 20 non-existent companies by ILFSL is highly unlikely to be recovered, he said while giving a confessional statement.

Senior manager of the leasing company Rafsan Riad Chowdhury also confessed his guilt to the same court.

The duo said the company was mired in irregularities at the instruction of its former managing director PK Halder.

In his acknowledgement of guilt, Hasan said he worked for Industrial and Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IIDFC) in 2003 when he got PK Halder as his colleague.

In October 2016, he joined ILFSL as its chief finance officer while PK Halder was at the helm of the institution.

Managing director Rashedul Hasan, assistant vice-president Al Mamun Shohag, senior manager Rafsan Riad Chowdhury and company secretary Rafiqul Islam Khan prepared counterfeit documents for loans for the non-existent companies, the former employee pointed out.

They admitted that the board of directors approved the loans which were never paid to the applicant company.

It was learnt that Lipro International, one of the non-existent companies bagged Tk 116,55,41,897 core in loan through 16 cheques.

All forgeries relating to cheques were committed by former managing directors Rashedul Hasan and Syed Abed Hasan.

Rafsan Riad Chowdhury told the court he joined the Reliance Finance Limited as a management trainee officer in 2010 while PK Halder was its managing director.

In 2015 he joined ILFSL where Nahida Runai, one of PK Halder’s girlfriends Nahida Runai used to work.

Assistant vice-president of the leasing company Al Mamun Shohag was engaged in preparing counterfeit field visit report, National Identity Card (NID), city corporation trade licence, loan proposal, TIN certificate, credit information bureau report and documents for the non-existent companies.

Anti-Corruption Commission officials say PK Halder siphoned-off thousands of crore of Taka in the name of such paper-based companies.

In connection with the graft, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed 10 cases against 37 people including former managing director of now-defunct NRB Global Bank PK Halder for laundering about Tk 782 crore belonging to ILFSL.