ACC sues Infrastructure Finance Fund’s ex-CEO
SM Formanul Islam allegedly abused his power and became involved in illegal activities including corruption
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), on Tuesday, filed a case against SM Formanul Islam – former chief executive officer (CEO) of Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund Limited (BIFFL) – on charges of abuse of power and breach of trust.
Md Nisarul Kabir Siddiqui, senior principal officer (Treasury) of the government-owned non-banking financial institution, is also being sued in the case.
ACC spokesperson Pranab Kumar Bhattacharjee confirmed the matter to The Business Standard.
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According to the case statement, both the officials abused their power and became involved in illegal activities including corruption.
Without the approval of BIFFL's Board of Directors, and by violating circulars of the Bangladesh Bank's Department of Financial Institutions and Markets and the Financial Institutions Division of the finance ministry, they deposited over Tk584 crore as fixed deposit receipts (FDR) in two poorly performing private banks and 12 unlisted financial institutions.
The graft watchdog says there is no chance of retrieving the deposited money.
According to ACC documents, they deposited the money between 2015 and 2019.
BIFFL is the largest non-banking financial institution in Bangladesh with authorised capital and paid-up capital of Tk10,000 crore and Tk2,010 crore, respectively.
The objective of the institution is to address the importance of infrastructure development vis-à-vis insufficient investment in that particular sector – to promote an attractive environment for sustainable private investment.
As a part of this, BIFFL was established in 2011 as a special purpose vehicle to mobilise the PPP budget – through financing infrastructure projects by building partnerships with private sector investors.
