Hasina's close friends looted Tk 2 lakh crore from the bank account: Governor

The governor of Bangladesh Bank, Ahsan Mansoor, claimed that the millionaires associated with the Hasina government have looted and smuggled 17 billion US dollars from the bank accounts of Bangladesh with the help of intelligence agencies.

In an interview given to the British media Financial Times, the governor alleged that the military intelligence agency DGFI (Directorate General of Forces Intelligence) helped in the forcible seizure of leading banks. Later from where money of more than 2 lakh crore rupees is laundered.

The governor said that after the takeover of the bank, an estimated 2 trillion taka or 1,670 million US dollars were looted through lending to new shareholders and overvaluation of import invoices. All the money of which has been smuggled abroad.

Nowhere else in the world has there been so much looting in this sector and there was state patronage behind it. This would not have been possible had the detectives not held a gun to the heads of the bank officials.

He said that S Alam chairman Mohammad Saiful Alam and his accomplices looted at least US$10 billion from the sector after taking over the banks with the help of DGFI. Every day they gave themselves loans.

There have been allegations of vote rigging, jailing and torture of opponents and widespread corruption during Sheikh Hasina's regime. The former prime minister fled to India on August 5 in the face of the student movement. After Hasina's escape, an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took power. This government has promised to bring back the laundered money. In a meeting with the FT last month, Ahsan Mansoor said he has sought the UK's help in investigating the foreign assets of Hasina's associates.  

In that interview given to Financial Times, Mansoor claimed that board members of leading banks were targeted during Hasina's regime. Board members were picked up by intelligence officers from their homes and taken to hotels or other locations and told at gunpoint to sell all their shares in the bank to S Alam and resign from their directorships. They did it in one bank after another.

In a statement issued by the law firm Queen Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan on behalf of Saiful Alam, S Alam Group says that there is no truth in Ahsan Mansoor's allegations. The interim government's smear campaign against the S Alam Group and other leading businesses in Bangladesh is beyond the basic principles of the relevant process, which has already undermined investor confidence and contributed to the deterioration of law and order. Given the group's past record and contributions, we find the governor's allegations bafflingly reckless.

According to the Financial Times, the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate (ISPR), the media wing of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, was contacted for a comment, but they did not respond. Also, DGFI could not be contacted for comment.

Meanwhile, the former CEO of Islami Bank Bangladesh Mohammad Abdul Mannan told the Financial Times that since 2013, he was under pressure from the then government-related people. He was picked up on his way to a board meeting in January 2017 and later taken to meet a senior defense official. He was then held for a full day to force his resignation. He said, they make bank letters with fake stationery. I had to sign a resignation letter.

Governor Mansoor said that Bangladesh has aimed to recover the looted money by completing the audit of nearly a dozen banks that went bankrupt during Hasina's government. We intend to use recent audits as evidence in courts of law both internationally and domestically.