AB Bank Plagued With Corruption, Central Bank's Suspicious Silence Goes On

 
AB Bank was once upon a time one of the leading first generation private banks in Bangladesh but this bank was defiled and crippled with corruption during last ten years. The financial vices and loan scams in AB Bank further intensified during last around five years. Morshed Khan, owner of Pacific Group, held the top baton over AB Bank but the board of directors of AB Bank has breached all ethical codes years after years and now this bank is on the brink of total devastation.

A senior Bangladesh Bank (BB) official has told The Asian Age on condition of anonymity that AB Bank's immediate past Managing Director, some people very close to the bank's owners, observers and a few AB Bank branches wrecked havoc to the bank with huge sums of illegally disbursed loans. These loans were for the most part laundered abroad, financial sources have informed.

Allegations show that AB Bank was hiding defaulted loans of 16 thousand crore taka. This bank became a safe haven for branded fraudsters and bandits like Salman F Rahman and his cohorts. A few unscrupulous Bangladesh Bank officials also collaborated with the evil quarters who despoiled AB Bank. Reliable sources have stated that the Gulshan and Agrabad branches of AB Bank were mostly associated with the financial rampage in AB Bank.

The outgoing Managing Director of AB Bank used to present himself as a political figure rather than a banker. Thus direct political intervention expedited corruption, mismanagement, nepotism and irregularities in AB Bank for last ten years. Bangladesh Bank has been suspiciously silent over AB Bank's notoriety though Anti Corruption Commission has taken a strong stance to examine the alleged graft and anomalies in AB Bank.

AB Bank facilitated enormous magnitudes of money laundering through offshore banking. The top officials of AB Bank played ducks and drakes with the depositors' money. For this reason, economists have said that the complaints against AB Bank need to be scrutinized through forensic inquiries. Most of the money siphoned off from AB Bank to foreign countries has been reportedly dispatched to Sri Lanka, United Kingdom and Dubai in United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The members of the board of directors in AB Bank are often selected according to the whims and fancies of the bank's owners. In this way AB Bank has become a horrendous hideout for nepotism and anarchy. These malpractices, disorder and corrupt exercise in AB Bank cannot be wiped out with its present board of directors sitting on high chairs. Rather AB Bank's present board of directors should be dismantled immediately to save the bank and to protect ordinary depositors' money. Otherwise Bangladesh's banking sector will bring about the downfall of the country's total financial administration like it happened earlier in Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Lebanon and Cyprus.

Bangladesh Bank should work without fears or favours to take necessary actions to rectify AB Bank. Finance Ministry and other regulatory authorities should crack down hard on the thugs and rogues who have caused AB Bank to go down the drain. AB Bank's shambles are just tip of the iceberg. If the authorities concerned can bust the diabolical group inside AB Bank, many other banks' outlawed activities and embezzlement will become exposed.

The interim government wants to combat corruption. Banks were one of the most severely corruption-inflicted turfs in Bangladesh during last 15 years. Corruption in state machineries cannot be eliminated without eradicating graft, theft and illegal money transfer from the country's banking system.

Professor Anu Muhammad of Jahangirnagar University said that nearly all banks and financial institutions were plundered and ravaged during last 15 years. He urged the interim government to execute speedy measures to release all banks from the ugly claws of corrupt oligarchs and malefactors.

Professor Mainul Ahsan, Economics Department of Chittagong University said that there is no ethical way for the ruling authorities to show any special favour to immoral bankers and financial racketeers who plagued Bangladesh's economy with corruption, money laundering and loan frauds one after another.