US$17b siphoned out of the country during Hasina regime, BB governor tells Financial Times

Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan Mansur has accused tycoons linked to the toppled regime of Sheikh Hasina of working with members of the military intelligence agency to siphon $17bn out of the banking sector during her rule.

In an interview with the Financial Times, he said the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence had helped several tycoons take overs leading banks.

Ahsan Mansur, who was appointed the central bank governor after Sheikh Hasina fled the country in August, said an estimated Tk 2 trillion, equivalent to $16.7 billion, had been spirited out of Bangladesh after the bank takeovers.

According to him, the banks was robbed using methods such as loans made to their new shareholders and inflated import invoices.

Calling it “the biggest, highest robbing of banks by any international standards,” he said, “It didn’t happen on that scale anywhere, and it was state-sponsored and it couldn’t have happened without intelligence people putting guns [to former bank CEOs’] heads.”

The governor said S Alam Group Chairman Mohammed Saiful Alam and his associates had “siphoned off” at least $10bn from the banking system after taking control of banks with the help of the intelligence agency.