Ex-land minister Saifuzzaman, 30 others sued over embezzling Tk 25cr from UCB

The Anti-Corruption Commission has filed a case against former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed, his wife and former UCB chairperson Rukhmila Zaman, and 29 others on charges of embezzling Tk 25 crore from United Commercial Bank PLC through fraud, forgery, and abuse of power.

ACC Deputy Director Md Moshiur Rahman filed the case at ACC's Chattogram District Office.

According to the case statement, the accused plotted to obtain a Tk 25 crore loan using fake documents and shell companies and then laundered the money through accounts of employees and associates of Aramit Group owned by Saifuzzaman.

According to the complaint, Mohammad Forman Ullah Chowdhury, protocol officer of Aramit PLC, was falsely presented as the proprietor of a non-existent company named Vision Trading. A current account was opened in his name at the UCB Port Branch, Chattogram, using fabricated documents.

Allegations have been made against several former officials of UCB's Chattogram Port branch, including former Branch Head and DP Abdul Hamid Chowdhury, former senior officer Md Akramullah, former first assistant vice president and credit in-charge Md Abdul Awal, and former FAVP and operations manager Mir Mesbah Uddin Hossain.

The allegations state that they approved a loan worth Tk 25 crore based on forged documents and facilitated money laundering by transferring the funds to shadow companies owned by employees of the Aramit Group.

Later, on February 15, 2020, Vision Trading applied for a Tk 25 crore short-term time loan, citing business in wheat, lentils, and yellow peas. Despite 17 red flags raised by UCB's Credit Risk Management Division, the bank's 448th board meeting approved the loan on March 12, 2020, the ACC document said.

The ACC alleged that branch officials, including the then credit in-charge, operations manager, and branch manager, submitted forged inspection reports and approved the loan without any collateral. The disbursed funds were swiftly transferred to four shell companies, including Alpha Trading, Classic Trading, Model Trading, and Imperial Trading, owned by Aramit Group employees.

Soon after, most of the funds were withdrawn in cash and deposited into accounts of Aramit Cement PLC and Aramit Thai Aluminium Ltd companies owned by Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and his wife Rukhmila Zaman.

The case accuses the 31 individuals of criminal breach of trust, forgery, fraud, and money laundering under sections 406, 409, 420, 467, 468, 471, and 109 of the Penal Code; section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947; and sections 4(2) and 4(3) of the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012.