A press conference was held at Dhaka Reporters Unity on Thursday, October 9, 2025, at the initiative of the Conscious Business Forum, demanding the return of money laundered by S Alam Group and the cancellation of the appointments of officials and employees illegally appointed in Islami Bank and other banks. Businessman Md. Mustafizur Rahman read out a written statement at the press conference. Abdul Haque, Chairman of Haq’s Bay Automobiles Ltd and President of Barvida, and ANM Ataullah Naeem, President of Bangladesh Capital Market Investors Association, answered the questions of the journalists.
The speakers at the press conference said that Islami Bank Bangladesh PLC is the first Islamic bank in South Asia including Bangladesh. Established in 1983, this bank was able to achieve the status of the best bank in the country by operating smoothly until 2017. This bank has provided employment to about 8.5 million people by establishing about 6,000 industrial enterprises including garments, large, medium and small industries in the country. In addition, it has played a helpful role in taking the country’s economy to a unique height by bringing foreign remittances into the banking channel. The service of this bank was advanced among all the banks in the country. This bank had an impeccable role in the development of entrepreneurs. This bank has become the first choice bank for businessmen in import and export activities. This bank has developed as a bank for the masses. In recognition of its success in all business parameters, this bank has been able to be ranked in the list of the best 1000 banks in the world.
They said that on January 5, 2017, the business group S Alam, in collusion with the autocratic government, used the state machinery to force the chairman and MD of this bank to resign. They expelled all the board members and made people of their choice members of the board of this bank. They appointed all the senior positions including the MD of their choice. They even appointed their own PSK as the deputy managing director of this bank. Later, they expelled some senior officials responsible for the bank from the management of this bank and appointed incompetent and loyal bankers from outside to this bank.
They said, S Alam took over the bank and prevented any other institution from opening LCs except for the LCs of his own group of institutions in all import and export transactions of the bank. He created an artificial dollar crisis in this bank with a strong foundation by laundering money. He stopped the financial supply of the country’s big businessmen and industrial institutions. Despite having an investment limit on the bank, we could not avail our limit. He took all the money from the bank anonymously in the name of his institution. He took sacks of money from the bank’s vault without any check or voucher and weakened the foundation of this bank. He took more than one lakh crore taka anonymously from this bank by intimidating the officials. In this way, he put a big bank like Islami Bank in a liquidity crisis. Due to this, due to the lack of cooperation from the bank, big industrial institutions and good customers of the bank have suffered commercially. Due to which many good customers are leaving Islami Bank and banking with other banks. In fact, the bank has lost good customers. Due to so many irregularities, it has become very difficult for this big bank to move forward.
They said, S Alam not only looted money, he weakened the bank’s main strength, human resources. He hired uneducated and semi-educated people from various classes, including pot shopkeepers, housekeepers and their husbands, auto drivers, mason’s assistants and sampan painters. Without any advertisement or job test, he hired 8,340 people for a huge sum of money. Out of these, more than 4,500 were from Potiya and about 7,500 were from Chittagong. Many of these recruited officers and employees joined the bank with fake certificates. Islami Bank has already fired many fake certificate holders.
The speakers also said that 82 percent of the shares of Islami Bank are still owned by S Alam. Even though Bangladesh Bank has seized them, we do not understand why these shares are not being liquidated and the bank’s liabilities are not being paid. Customers of all levels of the bank are afraid that in the future, miscreants like S Alam will seize these shares with the help of political forces and again take over and loot the bank.
They said that the bank’s annual loss due to the illegal appointments of S Alam is more than 1500 crore taka. Accordingly, the bank has lost more than 10 thousand crore taka in 7 years. On the one hand, the bank has lost more than 1 lakh crore taka, on the other hand, it has become almost impossible for Islami Bank to move forward while carrying the burden of such huge expenses due to illegal appointments.
They also said that even though more than a year has passed since the autocracy of Sheikh Hasina and her ally S Alam fled, the Islamic Bank authorities have not dismissed these illegally appointed officers for humanitarian reasons. Rather, a special skill test was recently conducted by the bank to reassess their qualifications. Fearing that their incompetence would be discovered, most of the officers boycotted the recruitment test and expressed disobedience to the bank authorities, which is tantamount to rebellion. These disobedient officers of the bank are continuing to spread propaganda against the bank. And no institution can run with such disobedient officers and employees. The deposits of 25 million customers of the country are not safe with them. They can also loot our deposited money like S Alam.
The speakers demanded that all illegally appointed officials be fired from Islami Bank by. If the Islami Bank authorities do not fire them by, they will announce a very strict action plan including surrounding the head office of the Business Community Bank. At the same time, they called for hiring talented candidates from all over the country by taking the exam through new recruitment advertisements.
The speakers presented some demands to advance the country’s economy, build a business-friendly banking sector, and restore the lost glory of Islami Bank Bangladesh PLC to build a risk-free banking sector. These are: All the illegally appointed officials of S Alam should be fired from Islami Bank immediately and arrangements should be made to recruit talented and qualified candidates from all over the country through advertisements to improve the quality of the bank’s services. Bangladesh Bank and the Ministry of Finance should take immediate steps to bring back all the looted and laundered money from the banking sector, including Islamic banks, to the country. All the shares of S Alam seized by Bangladesh Bank should be liquidated immediately to pay off the bank’s liabilities and the ownership of the bank should be returned to the previous board of directors. Arrangements should be made to pay off the bank’s liabilities by selling the security provided against S Alam’s loan and the assets that have been attached through the court within a reasonable time.
