File photo of PK Halder

PK Halder used forged national identity cards to borrow Tk 450 crore from three financial institutions (NBFIs) and laundered the money, according to Anti-Corruption Commission findings.

While Halder was the managing director of Reliance Leasing, the organisation lent Tk 150 crore to two people named Irfan Ahmed Khan and Foysal Mustaq. On papers, they are the owners of JK Trade International and Verse Metal Industries, the commission's Deputy Director Gulshan Anowar Prodhan has found.

Investigators have yet to find the existence of the two men, said an Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) official, wishing not to be named.

It is believed that Halder forged national identity cards bearing the names of non-existent people and later used the cards to have trade licences issued to those non-existent people.

"The addresses used on the trade licences are also non-existent," the official said.

The ACC is looking into allegations that Halder, the managing director of now defunct NRB Global Bank, and his associates laundered over Tk 10,000 crore taken from four non-banking financial institutions (NBFI) between 2014 and 2019.

He used the names of firms that existed only on papers to take over the NBFIs by buying their shares. He later appointed his aides on key posts at the NBFIs and managed to launder the money with their help, the official added.

The NBFIs ruined by him are International Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (ILFSL), FAS Finance, Reliance Finance, and Peoples Leasing and Financial Services Limited (PLFSL).

The JK Trade International received another loan of Tk 300 crore from FAS Finance and ILFSL.

A loan defaulter businessman from Chattogram helped Halder in the forgery.

"That businessman sold a five-star hotel in Cox's Bazar to Halder for Tk 84 crore," ACC officials said, adding Halder helped the businessman get Tk 650 crore from different banks.

The businessman also has a five-star hotel in Montenegro which cost Tk 600 crore to build, an ACC source said, adding that Halder invested in the hotel.

ACC source said, "At Jubilee road and Station road branches of One Bank in Chattogram, they opened several accounts for JK Trade International and one for a firm called BD Trading. The owner of the last company on papers was Irfan Ahmed Khan.

"About Tk 450 crore were laundered between 2014 and 2018 by these organisations," said the official.

An officer said Halder dropped several hundred crores to a bank account in Dubai. The money was laundered out of the country.

In a similar fashion, about Tk 100 crore was sanctioned to an organisation called Drinan. The money was transferred to an account of Bank Asia's Dhanmondi Branch.

The NIDs used during the transactions were fake, the officers found.

On Thursday, Halder's close associate Sukumar Mridha told a Dhaka court that over 100 people, mostly bankers, had helped Halder execute financial scams.

They included a former chairman and a managing director of two private banks.

Halder came to national discussion during the 2019 crackdown on illegal casinos. The ACC had launched an investigation into Halder and 42 other people's involvement in the illegal casino business.

On January 25, the ACC filed five cases against 33 people, including Halder, for allegedly laundering over Tk 350 crore taken from the ILFSL.

The graft watchdog on January 8 last year filed a case against Halder over amassing wealth worth Tk 275 crore illegally.

On Thursday, Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit directed all banks to freeze for one more month the accounts of Halder and 63 others.