UPDATE: Ex-Padma Bank chairman faces ACC probe

****He forcibly took control of the bank, had links with Tk 800cr embezzlement, say ACC officials

The Anti-Corruption Commission has launched an investigation into alleged embezzlement of Tk 800 crore by ex-banker Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat.

An ACC director, requesting anonymity, said Nafeez Sarafat took control of Padma Bank, formerly Farmers Bank, with the help of top officers of an intelligence agency and police.

There are allegations that he embezzled around Tk 800 crore from the stock market, said the director, adding, “We sent letters to Bangladesh Bank and some other authorities, asking for information regarding his irregularities.”

Nafeez hogged headlines because of his involvement with Farmers Bank, which became a hotbed for irregularities in less than three years of its establishment in 2013.

According to a Bangladesh Bank report, over Tk 3,500 crore was syphoned out of the bank.

To rescue the bank, state enterprises Investment Corporation of Bangladesh, Sonali Bank, Janata Bank, Agrani Bank and Rupali Bank bought 60 percent stake in the bank for Tk 715 crore.

Nafeez took over the bank in 2018 after Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, a former presidium member of the Awami League, stepped down as chairman. Farmers Bank was renamed Padma Bank in 2019.

In 2021, Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, founding chairman of the bank, alleged that Nafeez misused Tk 100 crore from the bank.

Nafeez resigned from the bank in January this year.

Burdened by high default loans, the bank agreed to merge with another bank in March this year.