Basic Bank Scam: ACC to quiz Bacchu, 10 ex-directors

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday summoned former BASIC Bank chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu and 10 former directors of the bank to its office for interrogation in scam cases involving about Tk 4,500 crore.

The move came over two years after the graft watchdog filed 56 cases against bankers over the loan scam that took place in the state-run bank between 2010 and 2013.

The ACC, however, didn't implicate Bacchu, believed to be at the centre of the scam, in any of the cases.

The commission in the summons notices asked the 11 to appear before it on December 4.

Asked why the graft watchdog sent the notices so late, ACC Public Relations Officer Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya yesterday told The Daily Star that it took time to investigate most of the cases as many departments and officials of the bank were involved in the loan disbursement process.

According to a Bangladesh Bank enquiry, about Tk 4,500 crore was siphoned out of BASIC Bank when Bacchu chaired the board of the bank.

On July 14, 2014, the central bank sent a report on the scam to the ACC, detailing how people embezzled money from the bank through shell companies and dubious accounts.

The BB found that Bacchu illegally influenced all the activities of the state-owned lender, leaving the once-sound bank in a grave state.

The report, which contained the findings of the observer deployed at the BASIC Bank, outlined how the former chairman abused his power to play an active role in the loan scam.

The BB first inspected the bank's Gulshan, Shantinagar and Dilkusha branches in 2012 and found evidence of serious anomalies in approving loans.

One of the best-run banks until 2009, BASIC Bank was mired in financial irregularities following Bacchu's appointment as its chairman that year.

The lender incurred a loss of around Tk 43.2 crore in 2013, the first such incident in its 25 years of operation then.

On August 18 this year, a three-member Supreme Court bench while holding hearing in two loan scam cases expressed discontent at the ACC for not naming Bacchu and the bank's ex-board members.

“We don't want the Anti-Corruption Commission to maintain any 'pick and choose' policy in implicating accused in such cases, as nobody is above the law. All the allegations must be investigated with importance,” said the court.

Speaking at a programme in the capital on August 26, Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the finance ministry, accused the ACC of “miserably failing” to bring to book the perpetuators of the scam.

The ACC failed to take action even though the House committee sent “specific evidence” to it in this regard, he said.

Razzaque termed the loan scam “pure robbery in broad daylight”.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith at an ACC programme in March said Bacchu was involved in the loan scam.

The BB's investigation report has already been submitted to the ACC, he said, adding, “Now let's see what the next course of action would be.”