28 including PK Halder sued in 2 ACC cases
The Anti-Corruption Commission has filed two cases over the money laundering of Tk42 crore and Tk40 crore from FAS Finance and Investment Ltd respectively by two non-existent organisations SA Enterprise and Shandip Corporation.
Twenty eight people including FAS Finance and Investment Ltd Chairman MA Hafiz, 12 Directors -including Siddiqur Rahman, Jahangir Alam, Ujjal Kumar, Proshanta Kumar Halder - and Managing Director Russek Shahriar were accused in the cases.
PK Halder's syndicate took control of the FAS Finance and Investment Ltd by purchasing shares near the end of 2014. They systematically fired the firm's existing employees and hired their own people.
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The syndicate appointed Rasel Shahriar as the firm's managing director – who was a former colleague of PK Halder and they worked together at the same firm in 2007. Ujjal Kumar Nandi appointed directors for the board.
Siddiqur Rahman and Jahangir Alam were both friends and business partners of PK Halder. Because of this connection, the syndicate tasked the duo with running the FAS Finance. PK Halder made the sole decision which shell companies will get the loans.
Board meetings were held in name only. Managing Director Rasel Shahriar did not scrutinise any of the shell companies before signing the credit memos, and then got those loans approved at the meetings without any mortgages.
After approval, the firm sanctioned the loans and then transferred the money to accounts belonging to PK Halder's syndicate. FAS Finance also deposited all money received from takeover loans to the syndicate-owned bank accounts, not to the takeover companies.
On 22 January 2020, the High Court ordered confiscating all properties, freezing bank accounts, and seizing passports of Halder and 19 others including his wife, mother and brother. The court also imposed a restriction on them to leave the country, but he somehow managed to flee to Canada.
Bangladesh later issued an arrest warrant against PK Halder through the Interpol in the beginning of 2021.
