The Anti-Corruption Commission started an inquiry against S Alam Group chairman Mohammad Saiful Alam over allegations of laundering money to Singapore.
ACC on Tuesday formed a three-member inquiry team led by its money laundering wing deputy director Md Nur-E-Alam to probe the allegations, confirmed a director of the commission.
He said S Alam is accused of laundering $聽1 billion to Singapore and they started the inquiry and were collecting records related to the complaint to facilitate the inquiry.
鈥楬ow much money has borrowed by S Alam from banks and in which sector the money was invested -- everything will be investigated along with his illegal assets,鈥� he added.
There are allegations against S Alam and his wife Farzana Parveen that they invested and laundered money through offshore banking to Singapore.
S Alam Group owner Saiful Alam has built a business empire in Singapore worth about $聽1 billion, although there is no record of taking any permission from Bangladesh Bank to invest or transfer any fund abroad.
The central bank has so far allowed 17 companies to invest outside the country but the business giant is not on that list.
The Chattogram-based S Alam group bought at least two hotels, two homes, one retail space, and other properties in Singapore over the last one decade.
Earlier, on February 4, the Appellate Division of Supreme Court scrapped a High Court suo moto order for inquiring into the reported money laundering and offshore investment of Tk聽11 thousand crore by S Alam Group chairman Mohammad Saiful Alam and his wife Farzana Parveen within two months.
A six-judge bench, chaired by chief justice Obaidul Hassan, however, observed that there would be no bar for the ACC and Bangladesh Financial Intelligent Unit for inquiring into the allegation against the couple, if they feel so.
The Appellate Division rebuked the ACC for not to hold inquiry into the allegations against the couple immediately after publication of a report carried out by a English daily on August 4, 2023.
It scrapped the entire High Court ruling and directive issued on August 6, 2023 after taking into cognisance the newspaper report which said that the couple made offshore investment of Tk聽11 thousand crore without permission.
The Appellate Division passed the order after disposing of a petition filed by the couple challenging the High Court ruling.
The HC had asked the ACC, BFIU and the Criminal Investigation Department to inquire into the reported allegations and submit the probe report to High Court in two months.
