Charges approved against BASIC Bank ex-chairman

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has finally approved the charge sheets against 147 people, including ex-BASIC Bank chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu, in 59 loan scam cases filed over embezzlement of Tk 2,265.68 crore around eight years back.

The anti-graft watchdog approved the charge sheets at its regular meeting held at its Segunbagicha headquarters in the capital on Monday.

ACC Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain at a media briefing said the commission has approved the charge sheets in all the cases filed on charges of embezzlement and money laundering from BASIC Bank.

The charge sheets will be submitted before the special judges’ court soon, he added.

He also said that they prepared the charge sheets based on the findings from an independent investigation which found Bacchu’s involvement in the scam.

Mahbub Hossain said five ACC officials investigated the cases and submitted the probe reports to the commission that approved the charge sheets after scrutinising the reports.

ACC findings show that numerous officials, including the chairman of BASIC Bank, in collusion with owners of various companies and other accused, provided loans against mortgages that were fake, over-evaluated or non-existent.

The accused of the cases embezzled a total of Tk 2265,68,00,145 from BASIC Bank in the name of loans. Among the 147 accused, 46 are bank officials, including ex-chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu and Company Secretary Shah Alam Bhuiyan, while 101 are borrowers.

Bacchu and Shah Alam Bhuiyan were made accused in 58 out of 59 cases.

Former BASIC Bank chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu and Company Secretary Shah Alam Bhuiyan were not named in the FIR of these cases, but their names were included in the charge sheets after ACC found their involvement during the investigation into the loan scam cases.

However, none of the board members were made accused in the charge sheets, even though there were allegations against some board members in the much-talked-about loan scam.

Earlier on January 21, the High Court expressed its frustration over non-submission of the charge sheets in the cases filed in connection with the BASIC Bank loan scam. The HC also directed the ACC to submit a full progress report on 56 cases within a month.

Following the HC order, the ACC on February 23 informed the High Court that about Tk 3,100 crore out of the Tk 4,500 crore in the BASIC Bank scam has been recovered and deposited in the government coffer.

According to a Bangladesh Bank inquiry, around Tk 4,500 crore was siphoned out of BASIC Bank between 2009 and 2013 when Abdul Hye Bacchu chaired the bank’s board.

In 2015, the ACC filed 56 cases regarding the loan scam. But neither Bacchu nor the members of the board of directors of the bank were shown accused in the cases.

Later, three other cases were filed between 2019 and 2020 against 156 people, including the former chairman of BASIC Bank Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu.