Once a fraud, always a fraud?

Apparently, you can sack the man out of the bank, but you can't take the banker out of the man!

Five years back, Selim Ahamed was a senior principal officer of a private bank.

But he was fired because he used to defraud people by promising them jobs. However, Selim, now 60 years old, didn't stop acting as a senior bank officer and continuing his life of cons.

He started working with a fraud gang, in which his role was to act as a top bank official and conduct so-called recruitment tests.

He used to sit at different private-bank receptions, unbeknownst to actual staffers, especially in those branches that have separate space for waiting customers. Sitting there, he used to interview different candidates who wanted to join as a banker.

His gang members used to bring the candidates to Selim. As a senior bank official, he was an expert in banking terms and used to ask candidates bank-related questions to make the interviews appear authentic.

Selim used to sit at different private-bank receptions, unbeknownst to actual staffers, especially in those branches that have separate space for waiting customers. Sitting there, he used to interview different candidates who wanted to join as a banker.

Then, he finalised candidates from written interviews. Finally, the gang disappeared after taking a hefty sum from the gullible youths as payment.

Over the years, the gang has been scamming people in the name of providing jobs.

Cyber and special crime division of police's detective branch (DB) disclosed these findings with The Daily Star yesterday, following the arrest of the eight gang members from the capital's Motijheel, Adabor and Mohammadpur on Friday.

Besides Selim, the seven others are  Md Enayet Khan (41), Md Kawsar Ali (38), Kazi Habib (32), Foyez Ullah (25), Jalal Uddin Talukder (52), Md Sagar (34), and Sultan Mahmud (31).

"We have arrested the eight while investigating a fraud case filed with Motijheel Police Station," Junaed Alam Sharker, additional deputy commissioner of DB, told The Daily Star.

According to the complaint filed by Md Sawkat Ali, accused Enayet, Kawsar and Habib took Tk 9 lakh from him on September 1, with a promise of giving his two relatives jobs at a private bank as clerks. The accused identified themselves as bank employees and demanded the money as donation for the bank, Sawkat said in the complaint.

Before taking the money, the accused took Sawkat Ali's relatives to a private bank's head office in August, in which a "senior bank officer" took their interview for around an hour, reads the complaint.

"We have so far received complaints of around 10 victims, who were also cheated by the gang recently. The gang has so far stolen around Tk 18.5 lakh from these victims," he said.

Junaed said the arrestees are wanted in a number of other cases.

The Daily Star independently verified that Selim is wanted in six previously filed cases, and three arrest warrants have been issued against him.

Besides, Enayet is wanted in three cases, Kawsar in two, and Habib in four, according to police database.

Some of them were arrested earlier, but they returned to their fraudulent ways after securing bail, said detectives.

Investigators said the gang used to deceive people using their professional identity.

For instance, Enayet is a contractor and has some connection in this sector. While meeting people for work, he used to deceive newcomers by saying that getting a new work- or tender-order is easy for him, said detectives.

Foyez is a computer operator by profession and was responsible for printing all fake appointment letters.

The Daily Star has also managed to collect some copies of Foyez's fake letters, which have original letterhead pads of different banks and offices, and seals of top officials.

Jalal is a private-job employee, and Kawsar is an NGO staffer. Their major role was to collect new candidates in the name of offering jobs, said detectives.

ADC Junaed said, "We have received a huge number of appointment letters from from the arrestees' phones."

"We are now trying to know how many more people were involved with the gang, and how much they have collected by deceiving people," he said.