Hallmark-Sonali Bank Loan Scam
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Hallmark-Sonali Bank Loan Scam
The Hallmark-Sonali Bank loan scam is a massive loan fraud that took place in Bangladesh between 2010 and 2012. State owned Sonali Bank's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch lent over 35 billion Bangladeshi taka ($454 million as of 2011) based on falsified documents. Little-known company Hallmark Group received the majority, nearly Tk 27bn ($344M), with the remaining loans spread among five other companies: T and Brothers, Paragon Group, Nakshi Knit, DN Sports, and Khanjahan Ali. An investigation by Bangladesh Bank, the country's central bank, concluded that the borrowers conspired with senior officials at Sonali Bank to embezzle the funds. ''The Economist'' described the 2012 scam as Bangladesh's "biggest of many banking scandals since the banks were nationalised 40 years before". Background In 1972, after the Bangladesh Liberation War, Sonali Bank was formed by the amalgamation and nationalisation of the National Bank of Pakistan, Bank of Bahawalpur, and Premier Bank branches located in ...
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Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the most densely populated countries in the world, and shares land borders with India to the west, north, and east, and Myanmar to the southeast; to the south it has a coastline along the Bay of Bengal. It is narrowly separated from Bhutan and Nepal by the Siliguri Corridor; and from China by the Indian state of Sikkim in the north. Dhaka, the capital and largest city, is the nation's political, financial and cultural centre. Chittagong, the second-largest city, is the busiest port on the Bay of Bengal. The official language is Bengali, one of the easternmost branches of the Indo-European language family. Bangladesh forms the sovereign part of the historic and ethnolinguistic region of Bengal, which was divided during the Partition of India in ...
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Sonali Bank
Sonali Bank Limited ( bn, সোনালী ব্যাংক লিমিটেড) is the principal state-owned leading public commercial bank in Bangladesh. It is the largest bank in the country. Ziaul Hasan Siddiqui is the chairman of the Bank. Niranjan Chandra Debnath and Sanchia Binte Ali are the deputy managing directors of the bank. History Sonali Bank was established in 1972 under the Bangladesh Banks (Nationalisation) Order, through the amalgamation and nationalisation of the branches of National Bank of Pakistan, Bank of Bahawalpur, and Premier Bank branches located in East Pakistan until the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. When it was established, Sonali Bank had a paid up capital of 30 million Bangladeshi taka, taka. From 1996 to 1999, Dr Atiur Rahman served as a director of Sonali Bank. In 2001, its authorised and paid up capital were Tk 10 billion and Tk 3.272 billion respectively. Presently, its authorised and paid up capital is Tk 10 billion and Tk 9 billi ...
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Bangladeshi Taka
The Bangladeshi taka ( bn, টাকা, currency sign, sign: , ISO 4217, code: BDT, Short form (linguistics), short form: Tk) is the currency of the Bangladesh, People's Republic of Bangladesh. In Unicode, it is encoded at . Issuance of bank notes 10 and larger is controlled by Bangladesh Bank, while the 2 and 5 banknotes are the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance (Bangladesh), ministry of finance of the government of Bangladesh. The banknotes of Tk. 2 and Tk.5 have mostly been replaced by coins while lower denomination coins (including all poysha coins) up to Tk. 1 have almost gone out of circulation due to inflation. The most commonly used symbol for the taka is "" and "Tk", used on receipts while purchasing goods and services. It was formerly divided into 100 paisa, poysha, but poysha coins are no longer in circulation. Etymology According to ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' and ''Banglapedia'', the word ''taka'' came from the Sanskrit ...
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Bangladesh Bank
Bangladesh Bank ( bn, বাংলাদেশ ব্যাংক) is the central bank of Bangladesh and is a member of the Asian Clearing Union. It is fully owned by the Government of Bangladesh. The bank is active in developing green banking and financial inclusion policy and is an important member of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion. Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), a department of Bangladesh Bank, has got the membership of Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units. Bangladesh Bank is the first central bank in the world to introduce a dedicated hotline (16236) for people to complain about any banking-related problem. Moreover, the organisation is the first central bank in the world to issue a "Green Banking Policy". To acknowledge this contribution, then-governor Dr. Atiur Rahman was given the title 'Green Governor' at the 2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference, held at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha. History On 7 April 1972, af ...
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The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Economist Group, with its core editorial offices in the United States, as well as across major cities in continental Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. In 2019, its average global print circulation was over 909,476; this, combined with its digital presence, runs to over 1.6 million. Across its social media platforms, it reaches an audience of 35 million, as of 2016. The newspaper has a prominent focus on data journalism and interpretive analysis over original reporting, to both criticism and acclaim. Founded in 1843, ''The Economist'' was first circulated by Scottish economist James Wilson to muster support for abolishing the British Corn Laws (1815–1846), a system of import tariffs. Over time, the newspaper's coverage expanded further into ...
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Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which resulted in the independence of Bangladesh. The war began when the Pakistani Military dictatorship, military junta based in West Pakistan—under the orders of Yahya Khan—launched Operation Searchlight against the people of East Pakistan on the night of 25 March 1971, initiating the 1971 Bangladesh genocide, Bangladesh genocide. In response to the violence, members of the Mukti Bahini—a guerrilla resistance movement formed by Bengali military, paramilitary and civilians—launched a mass Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla war against the Pakistani military, liberating numerous towns and cities in the initial months of the conflict. At first, the Pakis ...
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National Bank Of Pakistan
National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) () is a Pakistani government-owned multinational commercial bank which is a subsidiary of State Bank of Pakistan. It is headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan. As of September 2020, it has 1,511 branches across Pakistan with assets of approximately USD 20.2 billion. The bank provides various commercial and public sector banking services, including the debt-equity market, corporate investment banking, retail and consumer banking, agricultural financing, treasury services. In the year 2020, the bank was designated domestic systemically important bank (D-SIB) by the State Bank of Pakistan. History *1949 National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) was established under the National Bank of Pakistan Ordinance of 1949 and was government-owned. NBP acted as an agent of the central bank wherever the State Bank did not have its own branch. It also undertook government treasury operations. Its first branches were in jute growing areas in East Pakistan. Offices in Karachi a ...
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East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Myanmar, with a coastline on the Bay of Bengal. East Pakistanis were popularly known as "Pakistani Bengalis"; to distinguish this region from India's state West Bengal (which is also known as "Indian Bengal"), East Pakistan was known as "Pakistani Bengal". In 1971, East Pakistan became the newly independent state Bangladesh, which means "country of Bengal" in Bengali. East Pakistan was renamed from East Bengal by the One Unit Scheme of Pakistani Prime Minister Mohammad Ali of Bogra. The Constitution of Pakistan of 1956 replaced the Pakistani monarchy with an Islamic republic. Bengali politician H. S. Suhrawardy served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan between 1956 and 1957 and a Bengali bureaucrat Iskander Mirza became the first Presid ...
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Asiatic Society Of Bangladesh
The Asiatic Society of Bangladesh is a non political and non profit research organisation registered under both Society Act of 1864 and NGO Bureau, Government of Bangladesh. The Asiatic Society of Bangladesh was established as the Asiatic Society of East Pakistan in Dhaka in 1952 by a number of Muslim leaders, and renamed in 1972. Ahmed Hasan Dani, a noted Muslim historian and archaeologist of Pakistan played an important role in founding this society. He was assisted by Muhammad Shahidullah, a Bengali linguist. The society is housed in Nimtali, walking distance from the Curzon Hall of Dhaka University, locality of Old Dhaka. Publications The society's publications include: * ''Banglapedia, the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh'' (edition 2, 2012) * ''Encyclopedia of Flora and Fauna of Bangladesh'' (2010, 28 volumes) * ''Cultural Survey of Bangladesh, a documentation of the country's cultural history, tradition and heritage'' (2008, 12 volumes) * ''Children’s Banglapedia'', a ...
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Corruption Perceptions Index
The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index which ranks countries "by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entrusted power for private gain".CPI 2010: Long methodological brief, p. 2 The index is published annually by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International since 1995. The 2021 CPI, published in January 2022, currently ranks 180 countries "on a scale from 100 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt)" based on the situation between 1 May 2020 and 30 April 2021. Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Singapore, and Sweden are perceived as the least corrupt nations in the world, ranking consistently high among international financial transparency, while the most apparently corrupt are Syria, Somalia (both scoring 13), and South Sudan (11). Methods Transparency International commissioned the University of Passau's :de:Johann Graf Lambsdorff, Jo ...
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Corruption In Bangladesh
Corruption in Bangladesh has been a continuing problem. According to all major ranking institutions, Bangladesh routinely finds itself among the most corrupt countries in the world. The public sectors conducted by the Government are the most corrupted sectors of the country. In Transparency International's 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, which scored the public sector of 180 countries on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"), Bangladesh scored 25. When ranked by score, Bangladesh ranked 147th among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked last is perceived to have the most corrupt public sector. For comparison, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), the worst score was 12 (ranked 180), and the average score was 43. Introducing the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index, Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman of Transparency International Bangladesh commented, "Of the eight South Asian countries, Bangladesh remains second lowest both in score and rank — be ...
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