The Anti-Corruption Commission has sent to the relevant authorities in the United Kingdom information on properties allegedly owned by Bashundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan’s two sons — Safiat Sobhan and Sadat Sobhan — over allegations of money laundering so that the authorities can take appropriate action in this connection, said ACC chairman Mohammad Abdul Momen.
He came up with the information at a press briefing at the commission’s headquarters in the capital Dhaka on Monday in response to a reporter’s query.
Momen said, ‘We have sent details of several properties, including assets reportedly owned by Akbar Sobhan’s two sons — Safiat and Sadat — to the UK authorities today (Monday).’
Safiat is vice-chairman and Sadat is co-chairman of Bashundhara Group.
The anti-graft agency is currently conducting an inquiry into allegations of tax evasion, land grabbing, embezzlement of bank loans and money laundering against Ahmed Akbar Sobhan and his family members.
Momen said that the commission also sent asset-related information to the UK about Anisuzzaman Chowdhury Rony, brother of former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, and former NRBC Commercial Bank executive committee chairman Mohammad Adnan Imam.
‘We are hopeful these efforts will yield results soon,’ he added.
He cited a recent move by the UK’s National Crime Agency that seized assets linked to former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury in the UK, based on information shared by the ACC.
Earlier, the NCA also froze assets of Ahmed Shayan F Rahman and Ahmed Shahriar Rahman, son and nephew of Salman F Rahman, former adviser to ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
To expedite the process of recovering laundered money, the ACC chairman and the Bangladesh Bank governor recently travelled to London, coinciding with a visit by interim government chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus.
The ACC chairman at the press briefing said that during his London visit, the ACC submitted an initial list of laundered assets along with Bangladesh’s court orders to the relevant authorities.
He said, ‘The NCA has been highly cooperative. They have already seized a large portion of Saifuzzaman’s assets, including 343 properties in the UK alone valued at approximately £73.15 million (around Tk 1,025 crore).’
In total, Saifuzzaman allegedly owned 580 properties worldwide, including 343 in the UK, 228 in the United Arab Emirates and nine in the United States. The NCA has also frozen about $2.5 million (Tk 35 crore) in bank deposits linked to him.
The ACC chairman said that mutual legal assistance requests had been sent to multiple countries, including the UK, the US, the UAE and Singapore, with the UK being the first to respond over the money laundering.
Efforts are now underway to build an international cooperation framework with agencies like the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre.
Noting that repatriating seized foreign assets requires both Bangladeshi and foreign court approval, Momen said, ‘We must establish our claims properly. Without judicial validation from both sides, assets cannot be returned.’
Acknowledging the ‘limited success’ in recovering laundered money so far, the ACC chairman said, ‘Repatriating assets is legally and diplomatically complex. The foreign country considers the money as part of its own territory. Unless we can legally prove it was illicitly transferred, they won’t return it.’
Momen also said that some illicit assets had been moved to the Cayman Islands, though the authorities had yet to track those.
