Typically, when a lender receives a loan application, the applicant’s repayment capacity is assessed before signing the loan. But for Reliance Finance, under the leadership of Proshanta Kumar Halder aka PK Halder, it was an afterthought.
As chief executive of the non-banking financial institution, Halder was approving loans even before the request arrived. And it wouldn’t be for ridiculous sums.
It started with a loan of Tk 15 crore for a JK Trade International owned by Irfan Ahmed Khan.
The loan was approved on April 3, 2011, while the loan application was submitted on December 12, 2011, said an Anti-Corruption Commission investigator investigating Halder’s case.
“It’s completely unrealistic and illegal,” said an Anti-Corruption Commission investigator investigating Halder’s case, adding that the loan was sanctioned without any collateral.
And JK Trade was illegally granted a six-month grace period.
“That was his start. After that, he got more desperate and did one loan manipulation after another.”
ACC investigators have not located Irfan.
“We instead found Halder’s friend, Abdul Alim Chowdhury, as the owner of JK Trade.”
Halder also managed a Tk 5 crore loan to a NAM company owned by Abdul Alim.
“Abdul Alim and Halder were friends. Halder started scamming with his friend,” he said.
In total, Abdul Alim took out loans of around Tk 300 crore for his organizations: NAM Corporation, JK Trade International, Clewiston Accessories, Bharb Metal and RA Chowdhury Enterprize from Reliance through fake documents, according to investigators.
The duo later laundered the sum.
When contacted, ACC Deputy Director Gulshan Anowar Prodhan said they are still investigating the embezzlement at Reliance Finance.
Between 2009 and 2019, he and his associates defrauded about Tk 10,000 crore from four non-banking 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.
The ACC has so far seized Halder’s property worth around Tk 1,000 crore.
In October 2019, when investigators began investigating the embezzlement of NBFI loans, Halder fled Bangladesh.
On May 14, he and his five associates were arrested at Ashok Nagar in North 24 Parganas district.
During interrogation, India’s Law Enforcement Branch uncovered Halder’s connection to bank accounts containing almost Rs 50 crore and seven luxury homes in Malaysia.
Halder is now behind bars in India and faces forgery investigations in the neighboring country.
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