Home ›› 17 Jun 2022 ›› Front
The Anti-Corruption Commission has found that former NRB Global Bank Managing Director Prashant Kumar Halder alias PK Halder and his associates embezzled Tk 300 crore from Reliance Finance Limited as loans in the name of non-existent organisations.
The commission officials said PK Halder along with his friend Abdul Alim Chowdhury embezzled Tk 300 crore from Reliance Finance in loans in the name of fake organisations – NAM Corporation, JK Trade International, Clew Stone Accessories, Verb Metal, and RA Chowdhury Enterprise.
Based on the Bangladesh Bank and ACC findings, the commission’s Deputy Director Gulshan Anwar Prodhan will file a case soon with its Dhaka-1 integrated district office against PK Halder and others.
ACC officials said PK Halder when he was MD of Reliance Finance, approved loans of around Tk 300 crore for his friend Abdul Alim Chowdhury violating rules. Applications and papers for some of the loans were submitted after approval of the loans while there were also no mortgages against the loans.
Even, PK Halder approved a loan of Tk 5 crore to fake ‘Nam Corporation’ of Alim Chowdhury and another loan of Tk 15 crore to ‘JK Tread International’ of Imran Ahmed Khan before the submission of the applications for the loans.
Records show that the loan of JK Trade International was approved on April 3, 2011, but the loan application was submitted on December 15, 2011, which is a complete violation of rules. The loan was also rescheduled four times to give unethical benefits to the borrower.
ACC Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain said, “You know that PK Halder has been arrested outside the country. We are continuing our efforts to take further steps in collaboration with the Home Ministry and Foreign Ministry as per the ACC rules and regulations.”
PK Halder, the mastermind of a Tk 10,000 crore banking scam in Bangladesh who fled the country in 2019, was arrested along with five other Bangladeshis in Ashoknagar of West Bengal in India on May 14.
Since their arrest, the Directorate of Enforcement of India is interrogating PK Halder and others and they are trying to trace how much money PK Halder laundered to India and the amount of wealth he obtained through it.
During an interrogation, PK Halder told the ED that he held passports of India and Grenada apart from that of Bangladesh.
The ED also found wealth worth Rs 300 crore that belongs to Halder and his accomplices in India. It has also found seven luxurious flats and 40 properties in Malaysia.
