Ex-AB Bank chairman among three arrested

Staff Correspondent: The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Thursday arrested Arab-Bangladesh (AB) Bank's former chairman M Wahidul Haque and two others on charges of siphoning off money.

The two other arrested persons are chief of financial institution and treasury department of AB Bank, Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal and businessman Saiful Haque.

The three were arrested in front of ACC head office in the capital on Thursday afternoon, ACC deputy director (public relations) Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya said.

The anti-graft body earlier interrogated them for several times.

Saiful Haque is the son-in-law of AB Bank's first chairman and former foreign minister of the BNP-led government M Morshed Khan.

According to the ACC, AB Bank sent US$20 million equivalent to Tk 1.65 billion to a bank of the Middle East without required permission from Bangladesh Bank in 2014.

The ACC officials suspected that Saiful Haque and his associate UAE citizen Khurram Abdhullah were behind the process of siphoning off money by setting up off-shore entity.

risingbd/Dhaka/January 25, 2018/MA Rahman//A K Azad