The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Former BNP lawmaker and close aide to the BNP chairperson Mosaddak Ali Falu is going to lose his chairmanship of the International Finance Investment and Commerce (IFIC) Bank Ltd and will also be dropped from the board of directors of the bank.

A number of directors, who were close associates of Falu, are also to be expelled from the board, who purchased shares of IFIC bank through forgery, which was revealed by Bangladesh Bank.

The IFIC Bank will hold a four-day Extra Ordinary General Meeting from October 27 preceded by its Annual General Meeting on October 25, where the actions are to be formalised, sources in the bank said yesterday.

A central bank investigation report earlier revealed that Falu and his associates illegally purchased the shares in the name of a Malaysia based company violating both the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act and the Money Laundering Prevention Act.

Sources in the central bank said they are considering forfeiture of the shares illegally purchased by Falu and others.

According to the Bank Company Act, any individual, company or members of a family cannot hold over 10 per cent shares of a company. But Falu and his associates, AB Bank and AB Bank Foundation, and Beximco Group still hold more than 10 per cent shares of IFIC bank each, the investigation report said.

The government owns 34.54 per cent shares of IFIC bank, while Falu and his associates own 13.71 per cent, Beximco group owns 12.74 per cent, AB bank owns 18.31per cent and family members of Aga Yusuf and the directors of Islam Group own 3.56 and 2.21 per cent respectively of the remaining 65.46 per cent shares.

Dhaka Shanghai Ceramics Ltd, Build Trade Engineering Ltd, Diaper Ltd, and Bel Construction SDN BHD own 4.98 per cent of the shares owned by Falu and his associates, while the rest are owned by the directors of these companies and their family members.

Falu, Arafat Rahman Koko, son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, Enayetur Rahman, and Lutfar Rahman are the owners of these four companies.

Besides, the investigation found that Falu and his associates purchased 1.22 per cent shares of the bank in the name of Bel Construction SDN BHD, a Malaysia based company. Falu, who became the chairman of the bank after striking a deal in October 2006, holds only 0.62 per cent shares in his own name.

When Bel Construction SDN BHD was listed in Malaysia, two Bangladeshi citizens -- Osman Kaiser Chowdhury, and engineer Ashraful Alam -- were the owners of the company. But when this company purchased shares of IFIC bank in October 2006, Mosaddak Ali Falu, Enayetur Rahman, and Ekramul Haque were the signatories on behalf of Bel Construction.

The central bank's investigation team, however, did not find any document proving Falu's ownership of the company.

The report raised the question, how Mosaddak Ali Falu and Enayetur Rahman became directors of Bel Construction while they were active directors of IFIC bank too. The investigation team however did not find any provision in the bank's documents against holding such dual positions.