DHAKA: The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Tuesday approved charge sheets in 10 out of 27 cases in much-talked-about Hall-Mark loan scam. 

Some 21 people--11 from Sonali Bank and rest of Hallmark officials--were charged over the country’s biggest ever banking fraud at the regular meeting of ACC at noon.

ACC Commissioner (Investigation) M Shahabuddin Chupu confirmed the matter to banglanews.

On October 4 in 2012, ACC filed 11 cases against 27 senior officials of the Sonali Bank and Hall-Mark Group for misappropriating Tk 1,568 crore.

Earlier, little-known Hall-Mark Group and five other companies embezzled Tk 3,547 crore from state-run Sonali Bank with the help of bank’s high-ups.

A central bank probe body found that Sonali Bank high-ups, including a deputy managing director, a general manager and the branch manager, were directly involved in the scam.

Of Tk 3,547 crore, Hallmark Group alone took away Tk 2,686.14 crore, T and Brothers Tk 609.69 crore, Paragon Group Tk 146.60 crore, Nakshi Knit Tk 66.36 crore, DN Sports Tk 33.25 crore and Khanjahan Ali Tk 4.96 crore.

Of the six borrowers, Hallmark has been found to be the biggest fraudster.

BDST: 1705 HRS, MAY 06, 2014