Business Report :
Sources say that S Alam’s meteoric business expansions helped his family gain Tk45,000 crore in a very short amount of time.
S Alam Group’s chairman Saiful Alam Masud acts with the assurance that no bank will dare to question him because so many are in his hands.
He has carefully positioned his associates in high-ranking positions in several banks to accomplish this task. These businesses are frequently registered in the names of his family members or other people.
An instance of this is the astounding amount of approximately Tk45,000 crore that he took out of Islami Bank Bangladesh.
One such instance is the faltering flour factory Silver Food Industries Limited, which Masud purchased for Tk18 crore in the middle of 2022.
The Andarkilla branch of Islami Bank accepted a Tk850 crore loan for this mill on April 6, 2023; however, the loan has now grown to almost Tk1,000 crore.
The official address of Silver Food is 347 Jilani Tower in Chattogram’s Khatunganj. Nevertheless, following a three-day inquiry, this address turned up no evidence of the company.
Mamunur Rashid of the Patiya municipality in Chittagong is listed as the chairman and Mehedi Hasan of Sabujbagh, Dhaka, as the managing director in the loan acceptance paperwork. It was safeguarded by two land lots and a project.
However, since the S Alam Group took over Islami Bank in 2017, Tk34,200 crore in loans have been disbursed from seven branches in Chattogram.
According to Bangladesh Bank, the S Alam Group has secured a record loan of Tk23,295 crore from Islami Bank’s Khatunganj branch.
In addition to the Khatunganj branch, the group secured Tk2,922 crore in loans from Islami Bank’s Jubilee Road branch, including Tk1,084 crore for United Super Trade and Tk1,538 crore for Karnaphuli Flour Mills.
They also received Tk2,000 crore from the OR Nizam Road branch for Unitex Composite Spinning and Unitex LPG, and Tk1,200 crore from the Pahartali branch for Unitex Steel.
The group has also borrowed at least Tk10,000 crore from other branches, including VIP Road, Nawabpur, and Gulshan-1 branches.
New BB governor to eliminate corruption
Newly-appointed Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Ahsan H Mansur on Wednesday sternly warned money launderers, while identifying inflation as his main challenge.
At his first press conference, the governor also said: “Those involved in money laundering in the country will not be allowed to sleep peacefully, as they will be held accountable under the law.”
“The money will be retrieved from money launderers with continued effort. In order to prevent money laundering, we shall collaborate with the authorities and enforce both domestic and international laws,” he further added.
Authorities counter
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Wednesday sought details of the bank accounts of his family members of industrialist Mohammad Saiful Alam, popularly known as S Alam.