Home ›› 15 Dec 2022 ›› Front
The financially distressed Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) has applied to the Special Branch (SB) of Bangladesh Police to stop convicted defaulter and Bangladeshi-Canadian citizen Md Monir Uddin from leaving the country.
The bank’s Vice President Md Abul Kalam Al Azad, who is also the head of its Mohakhali branch, recently sent a letter to the special police super for immigration to take steps in this regard. The Business Post (TBP) has obtained a copy of the letter.
IBBL officials fear that Moniruddin, the owner of M/S Russell Enterprises, may leave for Canada without clearing his debt.
According to the letter, Moniruddin took out a loan from the Mohakhali branch of IBBL six years ago and did not pay back on time. The bank classified the loan and initially filed two cases against him. He did not show up in the court hearings and was absconding for a long time.
In November 2019, a Dhaka court found the dual citizen guilty of non-payment of his loan instalments to IBBL. The 7th Additional Sessions Judge Court, Dhaka sentenced him to one-year imprisonment and imposed a fine of Tk 2.44 crore. The same year, another court sentenced him to one-year imprisonment and imposed a fine of Tk 2.82 crore.
In the letter to SB, IBBL said the convicted defaulter now owes the bank a total of Tk 25.77 crore.
The bank said the authorities could not catch Moniruddin because he was using his Bangladeshi passport.
However, in May this year, he was arrested by a team of Banani Police Station in a case, but the convict secured a bail in the case last month.
IBBL officials alleged in the letter that Moniruddin is trying to leave the country without repaying IBBL.
In the letter, IBBL Vice President Azad said if the defaulter leaves the country without repaying the loan, it will cause severe financial harm to the bank and its depositors.
Talking to TBP, Azad said, “We have applied to the Special Branch (SB) of Police to prevent Md Monir Uddin from going abroad. SB has taken necessary initiatives in this regard.”
In the meantime, the bank has also contacted the police station concerned.
He also said, “No one knows where he is at the moment.” Md Monir Uddin’s brother Russell did not respond to TBP’s request for comments. At present, there are 10 ongoing cases against Moniruddin at different Dhaka courts. He is yet to appear in any of the hearings of the cases.
Established in 1983 as a first-generation private bank, the Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd has been in the spotlight since the last decade. It fell into a crisis after a change of ownership that began in 2013. The process saw completion in 2017 when the S Alam Group, which controls the bank, appointed one of its subsidiaries as the chairman of the bank. However, the changeover drew criticism from other stakeholders and foreign investors began to leave the bank.
It fell into a major financial crisis due to mismanagement and internal strife after the change in ownership. The chairman appointed by the S Alam Group resigned and the bank limited its lending operations due to a lack of funds. Later in 2022, the bank faced another major crisis. In October this year, media reports surfaced that the bank disbursed unusually high and fast loans to people with no credible history of paying back.
For instance, one report said the bank loaned Tk 900 crore to an individual in just one month to set up his trading company and within 10 days of applying for the loan. In many cases, the bank provided loans without collateral or credit reports.
Another newspaper reported last month that the S Alam Group has taken Tk 30,000 crore of loans from the bank.
Besides, in between December 2021 and September 2022, IBBL disbursed more than Tk 25,000 crore of loans, according to media reports. Following the scandalous revelations by newspapers, the Bangladesh Bank this week appointed an observer to the bank to monitor its loan operations.
