Six UK property companies controlled by former Bangladeshi minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury have been placed into administration amid a wider corruption scandal involving Tulip Siddiq.
According to a report by The Telegraph, Saifuzzaman’s property empire has unravelled amid a crackdown by Bangladeshi authorities, who have accused him of laundering money into Britain.
His UK property portfolio is said to be worth £170 million and contains more than 300 properties.
The claims against him form part of a broader investigation into flats and houses bought by former allies and family members of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina is the aunt of Tulip, who resigned as UK treasury minister earlier this year amid growing pressure over the anti-corruption scandal in Bangladesh.
A corruption trial against Tulip began this week in Bangladesh over claims that she illegally received a plot of land from her aunt’s government.
She denies the allegations.
The collapse of Saifuzzaman’s businesses followed a freezing order on his assets by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
This included a luxury £11 million property in St John’s Wood, north London, and a block of flats in Fitzrovia, central London. The NCA acted after requests from the interim government in Dhaka.
Saifuzzaman has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and claimed he is the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt, insisting that he used legitimate funds to buy his overseas properties.
Administrators at Grant Thornton have now been tasked with selling a large portion of Saifuzaman’s assets, which largely consist of rental housing blocks in London and the South East.
Money generated from the sales would be used to repay creditors, which include Singaporean lender DBS and British Arab Commercial Bank.
Filings on Companies House also state that Bangladeshi lender United Commercial Bank is seeking to recoup $350 million (£260 million) from Saifuzzaman.
According to reports published in various media outlets, UCB has filed a claim with the UK Companies House to recover approximately £250 million (about $350 million) owned by Saifuzzaman Chowdhury. Based on UCB’s forensic audit, this amount was illicitly siphoned off from the bank.
According to that report, more than 300 properties in the UK, worth approximately £170 million and owned by Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, were allegedly purchased using illegally obtained funds.
Administrators from UK-based Grant Thornton are currently selling part of these assets to repay creditors, which include Singapore’s DBS Bank, the British Arab Commercial Bank, and Bangladesh’s UCB.
The developments come amid a complex corruption scandal in Bangladesh, with relevant officials over the vast UK property portfolios amassed by members of Hasina’s government.
As a former minister in Bangladesh, Saifuzzaman has said previously that Hasina treated him “like her son”.
Tulip, the UK’s former anti-corruption minister, resigned from her post in January amid claims she benefited from properties linked with the Awami League, her aunt’s party.
Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission has been investigating several members of Hasina’s family, including Tulip, over accusations of corruption.
Tulip has denied any wrongdoing and called the allegations “completely absurd”.
She told The Guardian that she does not plan to attend the trial in Bangladesh, saying, “I still don’t know what the charges are against me.”
“I feel a bit like I’m trapped in this Kafkaesque nightmare where I’ve been put on trial and I genuinely haven’t found out what the allegations are and what the trial is about,” she said.
Tulip is one of 27 people formally indicted last week by two Bangladeshi courts, including her aunt, who remains in exile in India.
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