The same group of corrupt people is now lobbying with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to take over the Oriental Bank by unduly influencing the central bank, sources said.

The BB took over Oriental Bank in June in the wake of its total financial collapse.

The BB interim report submitted to the finance ministry last week said the corrupt section of shareholders have obtained Tk 488 crore from five branches of the Oriental Bank by simply issuing vouchers.

Finance ministry sources said records of these branches--Karwan Bazar, Mirpur, Nababpur, Principal Office and Bangshal--showed that the sum was sent to the bank's head office under two "adjustable block accounts".

About 60 per cent of the sum was taken from the Bangshal branch.

The group also obtained another Tk 108 crore against 26 different accounts held by unsuspecting accountholders. The investigation team found out that these accountholders did not have any clue that their names and accounts were being used for draining out such money.

"High credit limits were set against each of these accountholders without their knowledge and the corrupt group took the money against these accounts," said an Oriental Bank official.

The entire sum of Tk 596 crore was drawn between 2003 and 2006, mostly during 2005-2006 until the central bank took over Oriental Bank.

"Such corrupt practices by the owners and management of a bank is unheard of in the country's banking history," a finance ministry official said.

The BB investigation team probed into 22 of the total 33 branches of Oriental Bank. It will continue to probe into the books and ledgers of the remaining branches, sources said.

Oriental Bank sources told The Daily Star that ousted managing director Kais Sami and top officials helped the shareholders drain out money by giving verbal orders and instructions to various branch managers.

"The practice here resembles small shops where the owner asks the cashiers and shopkeepers to give money at will or by just giving a voucher," an official said.

A BB investigation officer noted, "In the past we unearthed many kinds of irregularities and forgeries in the private banks of the country. But the magnitude of corruption in this case beats all of those past cases.”

A managing director of a different private bank said, "How can a managing director of a bank commit such blatant corruption? No banker would do such a thing unless he is a stakeholder in such corruption."

An executive of another private bank pointed out, "When these corrupt practices were going on, the Oriental Bank was under scrutiny of the central bank. What kind of scrutiny was it? How can a bank commit such forgery right under the nose of the central bank? The central bank should investigate that too, and also try to find out if there are similar practices going on in other private banks."

The bankers and finance ministry officials believe that the government should immediately file criminal cases against the top management and shareholders of the Oriental Bank, recover the money, and punish the criminals.

The BB interim investigation report also gave a grim picture of the Oriental Bank. When the BB took over the bank in June, the Oriental Bank's outstanding loan was Tk 1,830 crore. The bank claimed to the BB that Tk 540 crore of this was classified. The investigators, however, found out that the bank's classified loan stood at Tk 1,100 crore or 62 per cent of the outstanding loan.

The adjusted capital shortfall of the bank stood at Tk 1,800 crore and its cumulative loss at Tk 490 crore.

The bank was supposed to maintain a provision margin of Tk 1,250 crore but it actually is maintaining that of only Tk 6 crore.

Finance ministry sources said the corrupt politically-blessed shareholders have now become desperate to take over the bank before the end of the government's tenure late this October.

The sources added that the PMO has so far taken the stand that it would let the central bank act independently on the matter regarding the Oriental Bank.

BB sources on the other hand opined that the financial health of the bank is so poor that even if the government gave the bank to the shareholders, they would not be able to run it. It would again have to be sent back to the government along with fresh liabilities.

A previous primary investigation showed that the family of Obaedul Karim of Orion Group, who took over the majority shares of the bank in 2005, have obtained loans illegally on the basis of verbal approval. Obaedul Karim is very close to the BNP high-ups and has received many large projects in the last four years.

Mosaddek Ali, an influential leader of the ruling BNP, has also taken loans illegally for his television channel ntv. Records show that he has taken more than the approved amount of loans and that he took loans using false names.

Mosaddek, however, later rescheduled the loans under the name of his organisation and made some down payments.

Accused of corruption and irregularities, Oriental Bank's managing director Kais Sami was removed from his post for one year as a primary punishment.