A Dhaka court has ordered to freeze multimillion-dollar foreign assets of Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan Shah Alam and his family members, including its MD Sayem Sobhan Anvir, in six countries and two offshore jurisdictions.
These assets include bank accounts, real estate, and business holdings.
The family members are: Shah Alam's wife Afroza Begum, his sons Sayem Sobhan Anvir, Bashundhara managing director, Sadat Sobhan, Shafiat Sobhan, vice-chairman of the conglomerate, and Safwan Sobhan and; Sadat's wife Sonia Ferdowshi Sobhan; Anvir's wife Sabrina Sobhan and Safwan's wife Yasha Sobhan.
Judge Md Zakir Hossain of Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court on November 21 passed the order after Anti-Corruption Commission Deputy Director Nazmul Hussain, who is the head of the inquiry team, submitted an application in this regard.
The order, issued under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012, will remain in effect until further notice, the court said.
ACC Public Prosecutor Mir Ahmed Ali Salam moved the application on behalf of the anti-graft body.
It concluded that Shah Alam and his family amassed huge wealth beyond their disclosed sources of income through illicit means and subsequently, laundered to locations, including the United Arab Emirates, Slovakia, St Kitts and Nevis, Switzerland, the British Virgin Islands, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Cyprus.
Copies of the court order were sent to the State Register of Slovakia, Citizens International of St Kitts and Nevis, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Switzerland, British Virgin Islands ministry of financial services labour and trade, UK Department for Business and Trade, Singapore Exchange of Singapore, chairman of Habib Bank in the United Arab Emirates chairman, and chief executive officer of the ministry of interior and Department of Lands and Surveys of Cyprus for necessary action as per mutual legal assistance request.
The court also ordered the ACC to publish order in the government official gazette along with widely circulated newspapers for information of the citizens.
The court also asked its office to send the order to the secretaries of the ACC, the Public Security Division of the home ministry to communicate the order with Mutual Legal Assistance Request for subsequent actions in regard to execution of the order.
The commission provided details of property acquired abroad in the name of Shah Alam and his family members to the court.
The inquiry found that they took huge amounts of loans in the name of their companies from different banks, laundered a portion of the loans outside Bangladesh and purchased assets and invested in different companies in those countries and offshore havens.
As Bangladeshi nationals, they were bound to apply to the Bangladesh Bank seeking permission to transfer any capital outside Bangladesh, but they did not do so, the commission stated in the petition.
Besides, they were bound to declare all legal incomes and assets in their income tax returns to the National Board of Revenue, but they did not do so, said the petition.
Anvir obtained citizenship by investing 3 million euros in Slovakia and Yasha Sobhan spent 2 million euros to obtain citizenship in Cyprus. Shah Alam and his wife Afroza got citizenship by investing $25 million in St Kitts and Nevis, stated the petition.
More to follow...
