The High Court on Monday declared a 10-member board of directors, headed by Barrister Kamal-ul Alam, to revive debt-ridden People's Leasing Financial Services (PLFS.)
Former managing director of Ansar VDP Unnayan Bank Mohammad Jalal Uddin was also announced as the managing director of the PLFS board.
According to the court’s written order released on Monday, The other members of the newly formed board are former secretary Anwarul Islam Sikder, former senior district and sessions judge Hasan Shahid Ferdous, former managing director of Pubali Bank Abdul Halim Chowdhury and former army officer (Brigadier General) Kazi Taufiqul Islam, Fellow Chartered Accountant Nur-e-Khoda Abdul Mobin, Maula Mohammad, Depositors' Representative Nasheed Kamal and Nurul Kabir, chairman, Department of Finance, North South University.
The High Court has fixed August 22 for the next order in this regard.
The online company bench of Justice Mohammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order after hearing an application filed by depositors of People’s Leasing for revival of the company after recalling the court’s order that winded up it on the plea of the Bangladesh Bank.
Also Read - Peoples Leasing recovers only Tk 30cr from defaulters
Lawyers Ahsanul Karim and Shamim Ahmed Mehedi appeared for the depositors, while Mejbahur Rahman represented the provisional liquidator of PLFS and lawyers Tanjib-ul Alam and Kazi Ershadul Alam represented Bangladesh Bank.
Last month, 201 depository lawyers applied to the court through Shamim Ahmed Mehdi seeking directions to restructure or revive People's Leasing, which was embroiled in PK Haldar's money scandal.
The total outstanding loans of PLFS were Tk1,131 crore as of June 2018, which became defaulted as some of its former directors and other borrowers took out the money in the name of loans.
Defaulted loans of the NBFI stood at Tk1,900 crore with interest as of December last year, according to an audited report by the central bank.
On June 26, 2019, the finance ministry issued a directive that allowed the Bangladesh Bank to go for liquidation of PLFS due to the company’s failure to pay back depositors’ money.
It was the first liquidation in Bangladesh’s financial sector in line with the Financial Institutions Act, 1993.
In July 2019, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) ordered freezing all bank accounts and shares in the name of the nine directors of PLFS, including Alamin, who were fired owing to major irregularities. Besides, the High Court has also ordered a travel ban on them.
PLFS is one of the four NBFIs from which rogue banker Proshanta Kumar Halder, also known as PK Halder, swindled at least Tk3,500 crore.
