Hallmark MD Tanvir dies at DMCH while serving jail term

Hallmark Group Managing Director (MD) Md Tanvir Mahmud, a key convict in the Hallmark–Sonali Bank loan scam, died while undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) on Saturday night. He was 55.

AIG (Development) of the Prisons Department Md Jannat-ul Farhad confirmed that Tanvir’s condition deteriorated in Dhaka Central Jail on Saturday afternoon, prompting authorities to transfer him to DMCH at 1:35pm. He was admitted at 4pm and kept in Extra Bed 19.

Doctors said his health worsened rapidly after admission, and he was declared dead around 10:30pm.

Tanvir, imprisoned in a case filed at Ramna Police Station, had long been suffering from multiple complex health issues, according to prison officials.

Tanvir Mahmud was one of the central figures in the Hallmark–Sonali Bank loan scam, one of Bangladesh’s largest financial frauds. Between 2010 and 2012, Hallmark Group and five other companies embezzled more than Tk 35 billion from Sonali Bank’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch using forged documents and fake LCs.

Hallmark alone siphoned off nearly Tk 27 billion under Tanvir and his wife, Hallmark chairperson Jasmine Islam.

Investigations by the ACC and Bangladesh Bank found collusion with senior bank officials, severe oversight failures, and suspected political influence that allowed the scam to operate for years.

The ACC filed 40 cases over the scam.

In March 2024, a Dhaka court sentenced Tanvir and Jasmine Islam to life imprisonment for criminal breach of trust, along with additional concurrent sentences for cheating and hefty fines. Several bank officials and company directors also received prison terms.

Tanvir was serving his sentence at the time of his death.