The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) will file more than 150 new cases over the embezzlement of funds of over Tk 5,000 crore in the state-owned Basic Bank. ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmood told The Independent yesterday that many cases are yet to be filed against complaints of graft in the state-owned bank. He, however, did not specify if any case would be filed against the bank’s former chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu. “More cases will be filed over loan embezzlements in Basic Bank. I’ve come to know that many cased have not been filed yet. Against the backdrop of the massive scam, cases have been filed for graft in loans amounting to about Tk 2,000 crore or so,” the ACC chairman said.

A total of 230 complaints of loan embezzlement in the Basic Bank between the periods of September 2009 to April 2014 have been lodged with the ACC. The anti-graft body has so far filed 56 cases accusing 126 people including the then Basic Bank Managing Director Kazi Fakhrul Islam over the allegations of fund embezzlements amounting to Tk 2,100 crore. The commission has another 174 complaints, over fund misappropriation of about Tk 2,000 crore, against which cases are yet to be filed.

Earlier on December 4 and 6, ACC investigators questioned BASIC Bank ex-chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu, for the first time, over the embezzlement of funds from the state-owned bank. At one stage of the questioning on the second day, Bacchu fell sick, according to ACC officials.

The anti-graft watchdog moved for questioning the ex-chairman of Basic Bank amid strong reproach from civil-society people as well as a High Court order for investigating Bacchu’s alleged complicity in the Tk 5,000 crore fund embezzlement.

Talking to reporters after ACC grilling, Bachchu, however, claimed himself not guilty

and said the cases are under investigation and the allegations against him are yet to be proved.

Amid strong criticism over graft allegations, Basic Bank Chairman Bachchu, a former Jatiya Party MP, resigned from the bank in 2014, five years after being appointed the chairman.

As part of investigating the loan scam, the ACC began questioning suspects on October 22 this year and has so far grilled eleven people.

Despite the filing of 56 cases against 156 individuals, no member of the board of directors of Basic Bank has been named in these ACC cases. The apparent reluctance of the ACC to accuse the bank’s top brass has been met with strong criticism from people concerned, economists, and senior bankers.

The central bank also formed a probe body on Basic Bank loan scam as the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of finance had expressed unhappiness with ACC findings. Finance Minister AMA Muhith, last year, also told newsmen that the probe team found ex-Chairman Bachchu’s involvement in the Basic Bank loan scam.

Meanwhile, a special audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) Office has identified massive irregularities in Basic Bank loan distribution, according to media reports. The report has found major irregularities in the disbursement of loans amounting to Tk 5,399 crore in the bank and stated that the then bank Chairman Abdul Hye Bachchu and the board of directors were directly involved in approving many of these loans.

The report mentions one such incident where Abdul Hye Bachchu, at his sole discretion, passed 106 proposals for loans worth Tk 1,325 crore on the 327th board meeting of the bank in 2013. None of the other board members were consulted or informed about the decisions at that time, said the CAG report.