The Dhaka Special Judge Court-1 on Tuesday sentenced nine people, including Hallmark Group managing director Tanvir Mahmud and his wife and the group’s chairman Jasmine Islam, to life terms in jail in a case filed on charges of embezzling Tk 10.50 crore by taking loans from state-owned Sonali Bank in the name of a non-existent company.

Judge Md Abul Kashem of the court also sentenced eight other people, including Sonali Bank’s former managing director Humayun Kabir, to different terms of prison in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2012.

Additionally, Tanvir and Jasmine were fined Tk 5 crore each.

This is one of the 11 cases filed against Hallmark Group owners, officers, and officials of Sonali Bank in connection with the embezzlement of about Tk 3,700 crore from the state-owned entity.

The nine life-term convicts are Tanvir Mahmud, Jasmine Islam, Tanvir’s brother-in-law and Hallmark Group general manager Tushar Ahmed, T & Brothers director Taslim Hasan, Max Spinning Mills owner Mir Zakaria, Paragon Group managing director Saiful Islam Raja, Nakshi Knit managing director Abdul Malek, and Sonali Bank Ruposhi Bangla branch officer Abdul Matin.

The court sentenced a total of 17 years in jail to former Sonali Bank managing director Humayun Kabir, deputy managing director Mainul Haque, its former general managers Nani Gopal Nath and Mir Mohidur Rahman, deputy general manager Safizuddin, assistant general manager Kamrul Hossain Khan, and senior executive officer Meherunnessa Mery.

Apart from this, Md Jamal Uddin Sarkar, the former chairman of Tetuljhora union parishad in Hemayetpur, Savar, was awarded seven years’ imprisonment in the case. He was out on bail  but fled from the courtroom after his jail sentence was announced in the verdict.

Eight convicts, including Tanvir, Jasmine, and Tushar, who are now in jail, were present in the dock while the verdict was announced. The rest, Humayun, Saiful Hasan, Matin, Nani Gopal, Taslim, Saiful Islam, Mery, and Zakaria, are on the run.

The court, in its 248-page verdict, said that Hallmark Group’s loan fraud was one of the most astonishing incidents in the banking history of the country.

Criminals, who consider the savings of the people of the country, the banking system of the country, and the economy of the country to be a game, should be punished with the death penalty, the court observed.

However, the maximum penalty for the crime is life imprisonment under the relevant law, the court said, adding that hence, the nine accused have been sentenced to life imprisonment.

ACC lawyer Mir Ahmed Ali Salam termed the verdict a historic one, hoping that the other pending cases relating to Hallmark would be settled soon.

Tanvir, who was in a wheelchair, and his wife Jasmine kept their heads down while the verdict was announced and did not say anything for about 30 minutes they were in the dock.

‘Tanvir is sick and cannot walk normally. He has a tumour in his neck,’ said his lawyer.

Defence lawyer Shafiqul Islam said that his clients Tanvir and Jasmine would appeal to the High Court challenging the verdict as they did not get justice from the trial court in the case.

On his way from court to the car, Tanvir claimed to the journalists that he did not embezzle any money from Sonali Bank through forgery.

On March 27, 2016, the trial was started in the case. A total of 57 prosecution witnesses testified before the court during the trial in the case, said ACC lawyer Salam.

The ACC filed the case with Ramna police station in Dhaka on October 4, 2012, on charges of embezzlement of Tk 10.50 crore out of Tk 526 crore loans in the name of non-existent Max Spinning Mills.

In 2012, a Bangladesh Bank investigation unearthed that the Hallmark Group swindled Tk 3,648 crore from the state-owned Sonali Bank’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch.

ACC, after receiving a letter from the Bangladesh Bank on July 15, 2012, formed a six-member inquiry team.

Most of the people interrogated by the ACC inquiry team said that one of the prime minister’s advisers, Syed Modasser Ali, was connected to the misappropriation of Tk 3,547 crore by the Hallmark Group.

The majority of 21 bank officials, who had faced interrogation in connection with the scam, said that the adviser had ‘some connections with the Hallmark Group.’

In August 2012, after interrogation, Saidur Rahman, an official of the Sonali Bank branch, said that the prime minister’s health affairs adviser, Modasser Ali, had frequently visited the office of the then-general manager, AKM Azizur Rahman, since 2009.

Azizur Rahman, who was dismissed from the job of deputy managing director of Sonali Bank for his involvement in the Hallmark loan scam, died in prison in August 2014.

The ACC, however, did not indicate the names of any members of the bank board for the massive loan forgery while it interrogated the then-board members Kashem Humayun, Jannat Ara Henry, Satendra Chandra Bhaktha, Subhash Singha Roy, Anwar Shahid, KM Zaman Romel, and Shaimum Sarwar Kamal.

Among them, Jannat Ara Henry and Shaimum Sarwar Kamal are now ruling Awami League lawmakers, while Subhash Singha Roy is a party leader.

On October 7, 2013, the ACC submitted charge sheets against 25 people, including officials of Hallmark and Sonali Bank, in the 11 cases, but the charge sheets drew criticism as none of the board members were accused in the case.

Hallmark Group managing director Tanvir gave a confessional statement mentioning that he had handed Tk 3 crore to Taslim Hasan, another accused in the scam, to bribe the board of directors of the bank.