AB Bank gets new chair as chairman, vice chairman quit

The board of directors at the country's first generation private bank Arab Bangladesh (AB) Bank Limited was reshuffed on Thursday.
The bank's director MA Awal has been made new chairman after predecessor M Wahidul Haque resigned.
Also resignation letters of two more directors -- Selim Ahmed and director Fahimul Haque -- were accepted at the annual general meeting of the bank held at Le Meridian Hotel in the city on the day.
Amid rumours of handover in the ownership of the bank, three new directors were appointed at the board of directors of the bank. They are Moshtaque Ahmed Chowdhury, Nazir Ahmed and Sheikh Shirin.
Earlier in the day, Wahidul Haque, Selim Ahmed and director Fahimul Haque submitted their resignation letters to the board of directors of the bank at the meeting, said an official of the bank on condition of anonymity.  
Their resignation letters were accepted at the AGM, he said.
According to a Bangladesh Bank probe
report conducted in October last, the AB Bank's board of directors in December 2013 approved the investment of $20 million in Singapore-based fundraising and investment company Pinnacle Global Fund Pte Ltd (PGF) through the bank's Offshore Banking Unit (OBU).
In February 2014, the OBU allegedly laundered the money to an account at the UAE-based Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB).
The account belonged to Cheng Bao General Trading LLC which acted as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) or a mediator for the PGF. Cheng Bao immediately withdrew the money and closed the account.
It could not be known where the money went after the withdrawal, as the AB Bank has failed to give the central bank any substantial documents on Cheng Bao and the PGF, according to reports published in different media.
AB Bank Chairman M Wahidul Haque, two ex-managing directors M Fazlur Rahman and Shamim Ahmed Chaudhury, and its former head of financial institutions and treasury Abu Hena Mustafa Kamal were directly involved in the money laundering, said a media report referring to the central bank's investigation report. The central bank sent the report to the Anti-Corruption Commission on November 15.