The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday arrested two officials of Bank Asia in Chittagong for their alleged involvement in the “embezzlement” of about Tk 75 crore in loans from the leading private bank.

The arrestees are Md Hosnezzaman, manager of Bank Asia's CDA Avenue branch in the port city, and Md Mizanur Rahman, acting manager of the bank's Bhatiari branch, said MH Rahamatullah, assistant director of the ACC.

The bankers were arrested in a case filed by themselves in 2014 against a borrower who was absconding after becoming a defaulter, according to officials of the bank's head office in Dhaka and Chittagong zone.

The arrestees were sent to jail after they were produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court on the same day, said Mahmudul Haque Mahmud, a lawyer of the ACC.

Between March 2010 and February 2014, the two bankers helped Md Giasuddin get more than Tk 30.35 crore against 13 letters of credit opened in the name of Shah Amanat Iron Mart, the ACC alleged in a forwarding letter to the court.   Later, they again disbursed Tk 44.48 crore to Giasuddin from the bank's Bhatiari branch against an LC opened in the name of Al Modina Enterprise to import an oil tanker as scrap.

Both Shah Amanat Iron Mart and Al Modina Enterprise are owned by Giasuddin.

At that time, Hosnezzaman was the manager, while Mizanur was the manger (operations) of the bank's Bhatiari branch.

When the bank officials came to know that the borrower was absconding, they filed a case with Sitakunda Police Station in February 2014 accusing Giasuddin of fraudulence.

According to Rahamatullah who is also the investigation officer of the case, the ACC found that these two officials misappropriated the bank's money by granting loans to Giasuddin in illegal ways.

Giasuddin is a loan defaulter of around Tk 1,000 crore to Tk 1,200 crore of different banks, said another ACC official.

The ACC official said the two bankers granted the loans before getting the required approval order from the corporate head office of the bank.

Rahamatullah said seven people are involved with the embezzlement.

“We are trying to arrest the other accused,” he said, adding that the ACC is going to submit the charge sheet against the seven accused within a short time.

But the investigation officer declined to disclose the names of the remaining five.

A Bank Asia official, however, said its two officials were not involved in the loan scam.

“Our investigation found that these two officials did nothing wrong relating to the loans. Even, a Bangladesh Bank audit found nothing against them,” said the official.

He also said the ACC did not contact the bank's head office nor did it send any notice or letter before arresting the two officials.