Investor petitions in HC for liquidation of BIFC
A foreign investor of the Bangladesh Industrial Finance Company (BIFC), a controversial non-banking financial institution, has filed an application in the High Court seeking liquidation of the company.
Loquit Ullah, the foreign investor, invested about Tk15 crore in the BIFC which has been going through a financial crisis for a long time. He did not get the money back. So, he has sought help from the court, the plaintiff's lawyer Omar Faruque told reporters.
A single company bench of Justice Khizir Ahmed Choudhury accepted the petition on Monday.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
The lawyer said PK Halder, former chairman of People's Leasing, took over BIFC in 2015 by buying a 5% share of the company.
The former owners of the BIFC were Major (retd) Abdul Mannan, secretary general of the political party Bikalpa Dhara, and five foreign companies.
Loquit Ullah filed the case in 2021. The court had earlier issued show cause notices to the BIFC authorities to refund the petitioner's money several times but they did not comply with the court's order, said the barrister.
That is why the court accepted the petition for a hearing. After the hearing, the court will issue an order regarding the liquidation.
In December 2022, the report submitted by the high-level fact-finding committee of the Bangladesh Bank said in the High Court that Major (retd) Abdul Mannan alone swindled Tk517.63 crore through anonymous loans.
At present, as the liabilities of the company are higher than total assets, recovery of dues to BIFC's creditors and depositors has become uncertain.
