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Typically, when a lender receives a loan application, the repayment capacity of the applicant is assessed before signing off on the loan. But for Reliance Finance, under the stewardship of Proshanta Kumar Halder aka PK Halder, that was an afterthought.
As the managing director of the non-bank financial institution, Halder would approve loans even before the application had arrived. And it would not be for paltry sums.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel. He started with a loan for Tk 15 crore for one JK Trade International owned by Irfan Ahmed Khan.
The loan was approved on April 3, 2011, whereas the loan application was submitted on December 12, 2011, said an investigator of the Anti-Corruption Commission looking into Halder’s case.
“It is completely unrealistic and illegal,” said an investigator of the Anti-Corruption Commission looking into Halder’s case, adding that the loan was sanctioned without any collateral.
And JK Trade was given a grace period of six months illegally.
“That was his beginning. After that, he became more desperate and carried out loan manipulation one after another.”
The ACC investigators did not find Irfan.
“Rather we found Halder’s friend Abdul Alim Chowdhury as an owner of JK Trade.”
Halder also managed a loan of Tk 5 crore to one NAM Corporation owned by Abdul Alim.
“Abdul Alim and Halder were friends. Halder began swindling along with his friend,” he said.
In total, Abdul Alim took loans of about Tk 300 crore for his organisations: NAM Corporation, JK Trade International, Clewiston Accessories, Bharb Metal and RA Chowdhury Enterprize from Reliance through fake documents, according to the investigators.
Later, the duo laundered the sum.
Contacted, ACC’s Deputy Director Gulshan Anowar Prodhan said they are still investigating the embezzlement at Reliance Finance.
Between 2009 and 2019, he and his associates swindled about Tk 10,000 crore from four non-bank financial institutions, including Reliance Finance, according to ACC investigators.
The other NBFIs are: People’s Leasing and Financial Services, FAS Finance and International Leasing and Financial Services.
ACC has so far seized Halder’s property worth about Tk 1,000 crore.
In October 2019, when the investigators began probing loan embezzlement at the NBFIs, Halder fled Bangladesh.
On May 14, he along with his five associates was arrested from Ashok Nagar in North 24 Parganas district.
During the interrogation, India’s Enforcement Directorate found Halder’s link with bank accounts containing nearly Rs 50 crore and seven luxurious houses in Malaysia.
Halder is now behind the bars in India and is facing probes for forgeries in the neighbouring country.
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