Hallmark Group Managing Director (MD) Md Tanvir Mahmud, who had been serving a prison sentence over the notorious Hallmark 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 Mahmud passed away at approximately 10:30pm.

Tanvir had been imprisoned in several cases filed with Ramna Police Station and Kafrul Police Station in connection with the multi-crore Hallmark scam — one of the largest financial frauds in Bangladesh’s banking history.

Tanvir Mahmud was a central figure in the Hallmark Group loan scam, which came to light in 2012 and exposed massive irregularities at the state-owned Sonali Bank’s Ruposhi Bangla Branch.

Hallmark Group, along with several associated firms, was found to have fraudulently obtained more than Tk 3,500 crore in loans using forged documents, fake letters of credit, and grossly inflated project valuations.

The scandal triggered outrage across the country, led to extensive investigations by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), and resulted in dozens of cases against Tanvir, his wife Jesmine Akhter (Hallmark’s chairperson), and high-ranking Sonali Bank officials accused of facilitating the fraud.

According to prison authorities, Tanvir had long been suffering from multiple chronic illnesses, including chronic kidney disease (CKD), hypertension, diabetes, benign prostatic enlargement (BEP), bronchial asthma, chronic pancreatitis, recurrent vomiting, and urinary retention.

His condition worsened on Saturday, prompting prison officials to transfer him from Dhaka Central Jail to DMCH at 1:35pm. He was admitted at around 4pm and placed in Bed No. 19 of Ward No. 602 under close medical supervision.

Despite treatment, his health deteriorated rapidly, and doctors pronounced him dead at around 10:30pm, the prison official said.