PK Halder swindled Tk1,300cr from FAS Finance 

Using entities like People's Leasing and International Leasing, controversial businessman Prashanta Kumar Halder, known as PK Halder, has also swindled Tk1,300 crore from FAS Finance in the name of several companies that exist on paper only. 

An enquiry by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has initially found that 20 of 22 companies against which PK Halder took loans from FAS Finance through fraud were non-existent. 

ACC officials did not find 20 of the companies at their addresses while the other two were closed. 

A four-member team led by Md Nurul Amin, assistant manager at FAS Finance, conducted field visits for two weeks with the same result.   

The owners of these entities do not live in their homes or have fled abroad. Everyone's mobile number was switched off.

There is no possibility of recovering the money because there was hardly any collateral against the loans.  

The non-existent entities are Newtech Enterprise, Nutrical Ltd, SA Enterprise, Sukhada Properties Ltd, Nature Enterprise Ltd, Wintel International Ltd, Barna, Sandwip Corporation, Annan Chemical Industries Ltd, NB Trading, RB Enterprise, Doa Shipping Ltd, Imar Enterprise, G&G Enterprise, Hal International Ltd, Kanika Enterprise, MarineTrust Ltd, Moon Enterprise, MTB Marine Ltd, and P&L International Ltd.

Although the money has been withdrawn from FAS Finance against these non-existent entities, the amount was directly transferred to various institutions involving PK Halder.

In light of all the records, an enquiry team headed by ACC Deputy Director of Gulshan, Anwar Pradhan, has prepared a report with recommendations about 20 cases, accusing at least 40 people, revealing the fraudulent nature of the International Leasing and FAS Finance loans.

The ACC has so far filed 10 cases against PK Halder, former managing director of International Leasing and Financial Services Limited, for fraud.

According to the ACC, 67 people have been accused in the cases. Most of them are accused in almost all the cases.

On January 8 last year, the ACC filed another case against PK Halder for allegedly acquiring illegal assets worth around Tk275 crore. While investigating the case, ACC Deputy Director Mohammad Salahuddin arrested PK Halder's cousin Sankha Bepari, close associate Anindita Baral, tax lawyer Sukumar Mridha, and his daughter Anindita Mridha.

On February 25, the ACC team recovered hundreds of documents of plots, flats, and houses from a secret warehouse of Halder. The investigators have initially identified 7,080 decimals of land with a market value of at least Tk1,000 crore. The lands have been seized as per a court order.

PK Halder, who is abroad, applied to the current managing director of International Leasing on June 28 last year to take measures for his return to the country.

Although the court allowed it, PK Halder did not return and an arrest warrant was issued against him through Interpol. The Dhaka Special Judge's Court had earlier ordered the seizure of all of PK Halder's immovable properties.