ACC summons 9 Janata Bank officials

Staff Reporter :
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has summoned nine officials of Janata Bank for quizzing them about the non-funded part of the Hallmark scam involving Tk 1,100 crore.
The commission in a notice asked them to appear before the Commission by January 11. The nine officials are: General Manager (Corporate Branch) Abdus Salam Azad, Deputy General Managers MSM Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal and Azmul Haque, Assistant Generel Manager Md Faizur Rahman Bhuiyan, Assistant Generel Manager of Janata Bank Abdullah Al-Mamun, Senior Executive Officer Md Shakhawat Hossain, Executive officers Jesmin Khatun and Jenia Jesmin and Senior Principal Officer (Manager Export) Jesmin Akhter.
Officials said that the investigation found that Hallmark Group with assistance of a section of officials of 37 local and foreign banks embezzled around Tk 1,100 crore through back-to-back letters of credit.
ACC Commissioner M Shahabuddin said that the Commission is strict to investigate the fact. According to the ACC’s earlier findings, Hallmark Group swindled a total of Taka 3,547 crore out of Sonali Bank while it embezzled Taka 1,709 crore through letters of credit from the Sonali Bank Hotel Sheraton branch and from others banks through acceptance of Sonali Bank. After the scam came to light, Sonali Bank decided to stop payment of the bills to other banks which had given money to Hallmark with Sonali’s clearance.
On October 7, 2013, the commission submitted charge sheet in the much-talked about Hallmark loan scams framing charges against 25 officials of Sonali Bank and Hallmark Group.