PK Halder gets 22 years in jail for money laundering, illegal wealth

Thirteen others were jailed for seven years in the case

A Dhaka court has sentenced disgraced businessman Proshanta Kumar Halder to 22 years in jail for money laundering and accumulating illegal wealth worth around Tk 4.25 billion.

Thirteen others were handed seven-year jail terms in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-10 Judge Mohammad Nazrul Islam passed the verdict on Sunday.

Four of the convicts, Sukumar Mridha, Anindita Mridha, Abantika Baral and Shanka Bepari, were in court for the verdict. Halder and nine others are absconding. They are Halder’s mother Lilabati Halder, Purnima Rani Halder, Uttam Kumar Mistri, Amitabh Adhikari, Pritish Kumar Halder, Rajib Shob, Subrata Das, Ananga Mohan Roy, and Swapan Kumar Mistri.

Halder is a former managing director of the International Leasing and Financial Services Limited (ILFSL) and NRB Global Bank.

He is suspected of masterminding a loan scam that embezzled tens of billions of taka through four financial institutions, in which he placed his close associates in positions of power after purchasing large shares.

These institutions lent billions to fake companies opened by Halder and his associates, according to the charges brought by the ACC, which traced at least 20 such firms.

The four financial institutions under Halder’s control were Peoples' Leasing and Financial Services, ILFSL, FAS Finance and Investment Limited, and Bangladesh Industrial Finance Company. Top officials of these institutions were among those prosecuted by the ACC.

The entities that Halder controlled had been struggling to survive for several years, hit heavily by default loans, a lack of capital and a failure to repay investors.

Despite rumours that Halder had fled to Canada, he was arrested in India's West Bengal in May 2022.