S Alam’s cousin Ansar held at Ctg airport over Tk1970cr loan scam

Immigration police have detained Ansarul Alam Chowdhury, a cousin of S Alam Group Chairman Saiful Alam Masud, from Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram while he was fleeing to the United Arab Emirates.

"Ansar came to the airport around 8:30am today (2 September) to board a US-Bangla Airlines flight to the UAE. He was detained as an accomplice in Saiful Alam's bank scam," Inspector of immigration police Md Tahyatul Islam said.

Immigration police have come to know that Ansar took a loan of Tk1,630 crore from the Chaktai branch of Islami Bank under the name "Inherent Trading" and another loan of Tk340 crore from Janata Bank under the name "Ansar Trading," Tahyatul added.

TBS has data that Ansar owes a total of Tk1,970 crore to two banks.

Ansarul, who hails from Raozan upazila and owns M/S Ansar Enterprise, has been handed over to the Patenga police station.

Ansar's shell company secures Tk1,630cr loan!

Ansar secured a Tk960 crore loan from its Chaktai branch under the name "Inherent Trading and Impex Limited", a shell company.

Over the past two years, no evidence of the company's existence has been found, and local traders and residents are unaware of it.

 Bank records indicate that "Inherent Trading" initially borrowed Tk960 crore from the Chaktai branch in December 2021, with repayment due at the end of the year. However, not a single taka has been repaid in three years. The loan has been repeatedly rescheduled each year without repayment, now totalling Tk1,630 crore. 

Bank officials revealed that 1,431 acres of land in Dhaka and Chattogram, valued at Tk592 crore, were listed as collateral for the loan. 

According to joint stock records, the company was originally registered as "Sunmoon Traders" in November 2017 but was renamed "Inherent Trading and Impex Limited" in August 2020. The company's stated business activities include trading, import-export, garments, sewing, and other industries.

Ziaul Kabir Chowdhury and Ansarul Alam Chowdhury are the chairman and managing director of the company, respectively. However, no evidence of any business activity by Inherent's chairman, Ziaul Kabir Chowdhury, has been found.

Tk170cr incentive for Ansar's shell company!

 Loan records reveal that Islami Bank also issued a Tk170 crore incentive to Ansar's shell company, Inherent Trading. This incentive, typically reserved for affected industrial entrepreneurs during Covid, was inexplicably given to the shell company.

In addition to Islami Bank, Janata Bank approved a Tk340 crore loan to Ansar in 2022 through its Agrabad corporate branch. 

Ansar secured this loan for his company "Ansar Trading" by showing fixed deposits (FDR) worth Tk1,150 crore in First Security Islami Bank and Union Bank, both owned by S Alam. In the account opening form, this proprietor shows his monthly income of Tk2 lakh.