Trial begins on March 3

A Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against Hall-Mark Group Chairman Jasmine Islam and Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud in two of 11 cases filed in connection with cheating Sonali Bank out of Tk 437 crore.

Seventeen others were also indicted in the cases filed for the largest loan scam in the country.

Rejecting the discharge petitions submitted by seven accused, including Jasmine and Tanvir, Judge Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah of the Senior Special Judge's Court framed the charges yesterday and fixed March 3 for the beginning of the trials.

Jasmine, Tanvir and five others pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after the charges were read to them yesterday.

The court, however, could not frame charges in nine other cases as Tushar Ahmed, one of the accused, submitted nine petitions seeking adjournment of the hearing.

The other cases were filed in connection with loan scams worth over Tk 2,100 crore and their hearing on charge framing would also be on March 3.

Jasmine and another accused were on bail while five others, including Tanvir, were in jail.

Twelve others are on the run.

The Bangladesh Bank unearthed a loan scam involving Tk 3,500 crore at the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch of Sonali Bank in May 2012.

In connivance with some bank officials, the little known Hall-Mark alone took Tk 2,686 crore in loans using forged documents.

The Hall-Mark bosses used forged inland bills, meaning the group opened letters of credit for purchase and sold them to the bank which paid Hall-Mark without verifying and documentation.

The central bank later handed the issue over to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The ACC found that the branch gave Hall-Mark Tk 1,568.49 crore in loans between October 2011 and May 2012.

In October, 2012, the ACC filed 11 cases against 27 top officials of Sonali Bank and Hall-Mark Group in connection with misappropriating more than Tk 1,568 crore.

On August 4, 2013, Jasmine got bail after she pledged to pay back the amount in monthly installments of Tk 100 crore.

However, she did not pay any money and rather went to the High Court and appealed against the conditions of the bail.

The High Court cancelled the conditions attached to her bail.

On October 7, 2013, the Anti-Corruption Commission pressed charges against 25 people in 11 cases for swindling over Tk 2,600 crore of Sonali Bank. Two Sonali Bank officials died after they had been arrested and their names were dropped from the cases.

During investigation, Tanvir gave a confessional statement in which he said he had paid Tk 3 crore to Taslim Hasan, another accused in the scam, to bribe the Board of Directors of Sonali Bank.

However, the ACC found no involvement of the bank's board in the largest-ever loan scam in the country.