Economic Reporter //

Billionaires and businessmen close to ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s administration laundered $17 billion from the banking sector with the help of the Directorate General of Defense Intelligence (DGFI). This is what the governor of Bangladesh Bank said. Ahsan H. Mansoor.

After Sheikh Hasina fled the country on August 5, Ahsan H. Mansoor took over as the governor of Bangladesh Bank. He said these things in an interview given to the British media Financial Times.

Ahsan H. Mansoor said that after taking over the bank, about 16.7 billion dollars (about 2 lakh crore taka) have been laundered by showing higher loan and import costs of the new shareholders.

He said this is the biggest and highest bank robbery by any international standards. Bank robberies have never happened on this scale anywhere else. And behind it was state patronage. And this could not have been done if the intelligence agencies (former bank CEOs) had not held guns to their heads.

The governor said that the founder and chairman of S Alam Group Mohammad Saiful Alam and his associates have laundered at least $10 billion from the banking system after taking control of the banks with the help of DGFI. They were giving themselves loans every day, he said.

However, Queen Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, the legal firm representing Es Alam, said in a statement that Es Alam Group denied all the governor’s allegations. They claimed that there is no truth in Mansoor’s complaint.

The organization also said that the interim government is running a campaign against S Alam Group and other prominent businessmen in disregard of regulations.

The agency termed the governor’s allegation as shocking and unwarranted, damaging investor confidence and deteriorating law and order.

The Financial Times reported that the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of the armed forces declined to comment; DGFI also could not be contacted.

Sheikh Hasina was in power in Bangladesh for 15 and a half consecutive years. However, during the rule of the Awami League under his leadership, allegations of vote rigging, imprisonment and repression of the opposition and widespread corruption arose again and again. Hasina was forced to flee to India in the face of the mass uprising of the students.

Nobel laureate Dr. After the interim government under the leadership of Muhammad Yunus took over, initiatives were taken to trace the missing money and bring the accused to justice.

Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) official Ahsan H Mansoor told the Financial Times last month that he had sought the UK’s help in investigating the assets of Sheikh Hasina’s associates abroad.

He also mentioned that board members of leading banks were targeted during Hasina’s regime.

Ahsan H. Mansoor said that during Hasina’s regime, the intelligence officers used to pick up the bank board members from their homes and take them to different places including hotels. He then asked them at gunpoint to sell all their shares in the bank to S Alam and resign as directors. They have done this in one bank after another, said the governor.

A former CEO of a bank told the Financial Times that he was forced to resign as part of a forced bank takeover. Mohammad Abdul Mannan, the former CEO of Islami Bank Bangladesh, one of the largest banks in the country, said that since 2013, he was put under pressure by the relevant people of the then government. He was pressured to appoint people recommended by the Prime Minister’s Office as members of the council. Besides, people associated with the government agency searched the hotel room of a foreign director of the bank.

Mannan said he was picked up on his way to the board meeting in January 2017. From there he was taken to meet a senior defense official. An entire working day was then held to force him to resign.

The central bank appointed Mannan as the chairman of First Security Islami Bank in September this year. Regarding the incident of resignation from Islami Bank, he said that they made bank letters using fake stationery. I had to sign a resignation letter.

S Alam Group has taken control of many banks in the last decade. According to the information given on the website of this industrial group, they have significant investments in seven banks including Islami Bank Bangladesh and First Security Islami Bank.

Ahsan H Mansoor said that after completing the audit of nearly a dozen banks that went bankrupt during Sheikh Hasina’s regime, Bangladesh Bank has aimed to recover the money laundered.

He said, we want to use this audit report as evidence in domestic and international courts.

According to the report of Financial Times, the interim government has banned the sale of shares of banks after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina. Now the authorities plan to recapitalize the banks by selling the shares of these banks to good quality national or international strategic investors. The central bank is also planning to set up an asset management institute for risk management of banks.