Hasina-Era Elites Dump UK Assets Amid Corruption
As Bangladesh celebrates one year since student opposition forced the ouster of PM Sheikh Hasina, there is a new report of a scramble by pre-regime connected individuals to sell UK property. The Guardian, in collaboration with Transparency International, has reported that Bangladeshi elites connected to the Hasina administration sold, transferred, or remortgaged high-value properties in London.
The majority of these transactions took place shortly before the revolution. Bangladesh's caretaker administration, headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, blames officials from Hasina's era of laundering millions into British real estate. The UK National Crime Agency (NCA) has already frozen assets worth more than £260 million, but Dhaka officials are demanding further action.
The UK housing market has witnessed a spate of transactions relating to Bangladesh's ex-dominant elites. As many as 20 requests to buy and sell such properties have been filed with the UK Land Registry over the last year. Some of these are sales, others are changes of ownership, and then changes to mortgage deeds.
Three properties, totalling £24.5 million, were traced to Sobhan family members who control the powerful Bashundhara Group. A four-story Knightsbridge townhouse, previously owned by managing director Sayem Sobhan Anvir through a UAE company, was given away to Brookview Heights Ltd. free of charge.
The company is linked to Orbis London, which previously carried out transactions on behalf of the family. The townhouse subsequently went for £7.35 million to a shell company operated by an accountant with no known public profile. The family has all denied any wrongdoing.
The NCA in May had already frozen £90 million of property held by the influential Rahman family. It froze a further £170 million of assets linked to former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury weeks later. Chowdhury had owned more than 300 properties in the UK, ranging from flats to townhouses.
His brother, Anisuzzaman Chowdhury, was also targeted. Land registry documents indicate he sold a £10 million Georgian townhouse in Regent's Park last July and refinanced three others. The lawyers of Chowdhury state that the sale had been negotiated before the revolution and that asset freezes are not legally justified.
Interim Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus travelled to London in June to strengthen UK connections. With him went Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan Mansur, who called for increased asset freezing orders. "We are seeing attempts to sell assets," he said, calling on British authorities to freeze transactions that could impede repatriation efforts.
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Chair Mohammad Abdul Momen seconded Mansur. He requested the UK's NCA to move with urgency during the current Hasina-era corruption purge.
The UK is increasingly under pressure to tighten its screw. Labour MP Joe Powell, who chairs an all-party tax and corruption group, demanded action. "History shows us assets can instantly vanish," he cautioned.
Joe Powell welcomed the NCA's efforts but insisted that officials need to "cast a wider net." His group, established following Russia's annexation of Ukraine, deals with foreign elites money laundering in London property.
