10 businesses, Hasina family: Tk 57,257cr in assets frozen at home, abroad

• Tk 46,805.32cr assets in Bangladesh 
• Tk 10,451.54cr are in foreign assets
• These include Tk 17,215cr in bank accounts, company shares

Courts have frozen assets worth about Tk 57,257 crore, allegedly owned by 10 major business groups and members of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina's family, in over eight months from January.

The orders were issued as a high-level joint task force is investigating 11 priority cases -- one involving Hasina's family and the others S Alam Group, Beximco Group, Summit Group, Bashundhara Group, Gemcon Group, Orion Group, Nabil Group, Nassa Group, Sikder Group, and Aramit Group.

According to a task force document obtained by The Daily Star, Tk 43,385 crore of these assets are movable and Tk 13,871.56 crore immovable.

The document, outlining the progress of the investigations, shows that Tk 46,805.32 crore of the assets are in Bangladesh, while the remaining Tk 10,451.54 crore are abroad.

The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) formed the task force on January 6, following a directive from the Financial Institutions Division of the finance ministry. The move came as the interim government ramped up efforts to recover funds allegedly embezzled or laundered abroad by Hasina's family and businesses linked to her regime.

In October last year, Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur said $17 billion to $18 billion (Tk 2.2 lakh crore) was siphoned off through the banking sector alone between 2009 and 2023.

An official of the task force, requesting anonymity, said the majority of the 10 conglomerates laundered money to the US, UK, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and other offshore jurisdictions.

The task force is now working with government agencies and key stakeholders in the destination countries to recover the laundered assets, the official added.

It is also planning to appoint international firms to seize assets abroad under the priority cases, and sanctions will be imposed via the UK, US, and UN on the sale or transfer of these assets, said officials.

Assets of nine of the 10 conglomerates, as well as members of Hasina's family, have already been traced overseas, they added.

"All these assets were built with laundered money," one official said. "Orders are being issued through local cases to seize them."

The task force is made up of representatives from the Anti-Corruption Commission, the National Board of Revenue, and the Criminal Investigation Department of police. The ACC is leading the probe, while the BFIU acts as the secretariat.

An ACC official, requesting anonymity, confirmed the authenticity of the task force document.

Md Akhtar Hossain, director general (prevention) of the ACC, told The Daily Star that as part of the investigation, movable and immovable assets of individuals, including from the 10 companies, have been frozen at different times. He, however, declined to provide any breakdown of the assets frozen.

The task force document shows that about Tk 17,215 crore of the frozen assets include money kept in banks and shares in beneficiary-owner (BO) accounts initially suspended by the BFIU and later blocked through court orders. Of the amount, Tk 1,679.72 crore is in local currency and Tk 36 crore in US dollar ($3 million) in 1,573 bank accounts of individuals and entities. The rest, Tk 15,500 crore in shares, were held in 188 BO accounts.

Under the Money Laundering Prevention Regulations, 2019, the BFIU can freeze bank accounts for 30 days and then extend the freeze up to seven times itself in cases of suspicious transactions or illegal activities. For further extensions, it needs court orders. The BFIU secured court orders to ensure the freeze in these 11 cases, according to the document.    

The media had previously reported that accounts of Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, daughter Saima Wazed Putul, sister Sheikh Rehana, and Rehana's son Radwan Mujib Siddiq, among others, have been frozen.

Accounts of several top businessmen were also blocked, including S Alam Group Chairman Mohammed Saiful Alam and his family; Salman F Rahman, former adviser to Hasina and vice-chairman of Beximco Group, along with his son Shayan Fazlur Rahman and daughter-in-law; Bashundhara Group founder Ahmed Akbar Sobhan and his family; and Aramit owner and former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and his family.

The accounts of Orion Group Chairman Mohammad Obaidul Karim, Managing Director Salman Obaidul Karim, and their families were frozen as well.

Also frozen were accounts of the Awami League's research wing the Centre for Research and Information (CRI) and its "Young Bangla" project.

The task force document mentions that in two of the priority cases -- one involving Saifuzzaman and the other Beximco -- the UK National Crime Agency has frozen assets worth £260 million (Tk 4,256 crore).

The owners and founders of Summit, Orion, Sikder, Nassa and Nabil groups also saw their accounts frozen.

Orion Group MD Salman Obaidul Karim told The Daily Star on August 24 that their personal bank accounts have been frozen while land and properties have been "seized".

As for the company, only transactions for paying salaries or purchasing raw materials are allowed, he said.

"We are facing problems with cash transactions. Many banks are also refusing to open LCs for us because they are afraid of the Anti-Corruption Commission."

He also said they were considering legally challenging the freeze and seizure.

Contacted, Ranjan Chowdhury, vice chairman of Nassa Group, said they have not yet taken any legal steps regarding the frozen assets.

He claimed the group's bank account has been suspended due to loan defaults, not frozen.

The labour ministry is trying to help the company pay salaries since bank borrowing is not an option for many of its enterprises with defaulted loans, he added.

"Our company is now on the verge of shutting down. We have 20,000 to 25,000 employees. That is why we have been trying to somehow continue operations with our own funds."

Summit Group in a statement said that wholesale freezing of accounts has resulted in "aspersions on Bangladesh, the government as well as business entities and connected persons".

It said the freeze orders were "unfounded" and have effectively impacted hundreds of thousands of people and their jobs.

"Both domestic and international financial institutions, who conduct due diligence, immediately come across these wholescale freezes. This diminishes any possibility of foreign direct investment."

This newspaper tried to reach Subrata Kumar Bhowmick, executive director of S Alam Group; Osman Kaiser Chowdhury, director of Beximco; Sayem Sobhan Anvir, managing director of Bashundhara Group; Mohammad Abu Tayeb, media adviser of Bashundhara; and Md Aminul Islam, managing director and CEO of Nabil Group.

They, however, did not respond to calls and WhatsApp messages for comments. These companies did not reply to emails sent to the IDs provided on their websites.  Gemcon, Sikder, and Aramit groups also did not reply to WhatsApp messages and emails.