DHAKA, 19 February 2005 — The Securities and Exchange Commission has detected millions of taka worth of fraud in transactions of Premier Bank, part owned by former Awami League lawmaker H.B.M. Iqbal.
The commission found that huge amounts of loans have been sanctioned to Iqbal’s relatives using fictitious names and addresses of non-existent companies.
Iqbal is the chairman of the bank.
The Mothjheel branch of Premier Bank in Dhaka sanctioned 250 million taka in overdraft against 10 million taka fixed deposit and fixed and floating assets of a company named Nirvana Construction that does not exist.
According to the sanction letter, Fauzia Rekza Banu is the chairman and managing director of Nirvana. She is the wife of late Shah Alam, brother of Iqbal.
Dewan Anwarul Latif, executive vice president and in charge of the Mothjheel branch, signed the sanction letter to the borrower with the address: House 36, Road 18, Block- C, Banani, Dhaka.
Reporters went to Banani to locate Nirvana Construction Ltd on Thursday. They could not find the company and local residents said the Block-C of Banani does not have Road 18.
The bank not only sanctioned the 250 million taka overdraft, it reduced the normal 12 percent interest rate to 11 percent in this case.
Asked by Arab News to comment on the matter, the bank’s managing director, Kazi Abdul Mazid, said: “I am at a meeting now. I don’t have any ready information about it.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission has sent officials to southern port city of Chittagong to verify an address that was mentioned in opening 15,000 beneficiary owners’ (BO) accounts by the depository participant of Premier Bank.
The SEC suspended Feb. 12 a 550 million taka public floating of Premier Bank after around 25,000 beneficiary owners’ accounts had been found to be fake in the preliminary investigation of the capital market watchdog.
