Tycoons linked to Hasina siphoned $17bn from banks: BB Governor

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor Ahsan H Mansur said tycoons in collusion with members of the country's military intelligence agency siphoned $17 billion from the banking sector while Sheikh Hasina was in power.

BB governor  made the claim in an interview with the Financial Times.

Ahsan H Mansur asserted that the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) had facilitated forced takeovers of leading banks.

The BB chief estimated that Tk 2 lakh crore, or $16.7 billion, was moved out of Bangladesh after these takeovers through systems such as loans issued to the fresh shareholders and inflated import invoices.

"This is the largest, most significant bank robbery by any international standard," he said. 

"It hasn't happened on this scale anywhere else, and it was state-sponsored. This couldn't have occurred without intelligence officers pressuring [former bank CEOs]."

The governor particularly named Mohammed Saiful Alam, founder and chairman of the industrial conglomerate S Alam Group, and his associates.

He alleged that they had "siphoned off" at least $10 billion from the banking system after taking control of banks with DGFI support.

"Every day, they were granting loans to themselves," Mansur noted in the interview.

Responding through a statement issued by law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan on behalf of Saiful Alam, the S Alam Group denied Mansur's allegations, calling them baseless, according to the FT.

"The interim government's coordinated campaign against the S Alam Group and several other prominent businesses in Bangladesh has disregarded even basic principles of due process," the statement read. 

"This has already shaken investor confidence and contributed to the deterioration of law and order. Given the group's record and contributions, we find the governor's accusations surprising and unjustified."

According to FT report, the Inter Services Public Relations Directorate, which manages media inquiries for Bangladesh's armed forces, did not respond to requests for comment. The DGFI was also unavailable to make comment.