A Dhaka court has ordered attachment of all movable and immovable foreign assets belonging to the Bashundhara Group Chairman and the Managing Director and their family members on charges of money laundering, officials said.
Md Jakir Hossain, Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge, passed the order on November 25 following a petition filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
An ACC Deputy Director, Md. Nazmul Hossain, who is overseeing the inquiry into allegations involving the big business conglomerate, filed the petition for freezing of property belonging to Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir, and other family members on the charges.
The court also ordered the attachment and freezing of all movable and immovable properties belonging to Afroza Begum, wife of Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, Safiyat Sobhan, son of Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, Safwan Sobhan, son of Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, Sabrina Sobhan, wife of Sayem Sobhan Anvir, Sonia Ferdowsi, wife of Sadat Sobhan, and Yasha Sobhan, wife of Safwan Sobhan.
In its orders the court directed the authorities concerned to publish the attachment order in government gazette, along with one widely circulated daily Bengali newspaper and one daily English newspaper, for public information.
Furthermore, the court also asked for forwarding the order to the Secretary of the Anti-Corruption Commission, and the Secretary of Public Security Division, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Bangladesh Secretariat, Dhaka, for communications through a Mutual Legal Assistance Request (MLAR) to initiate necessary actions regarding the freezing or attachment of assets.
According to the ACC petition, the accused individuals have allegedly acquired a substantial amount of wealth beyond their known sources of income by illegal means. The laundered funds were allegedly transferred abroad to countries that include the United Arab Emirates, Slovakia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Switzerland, the British Virgin Islands, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Cyprus.
As per the petition, the freezing order includes bank accounts, company accounts, purchased properties, and other assets located domestically and internationally. This measure has been implemented under Section 14 of the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012, in conjunction with the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004.
The petition also mentions that the moveable and immovable assets of Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, his family members and their interests in different companies require attaching or freezing for the sake of conducting proper inquiry into the allegations.
On October 21, a Dhaka court imposed travel ban on Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, also known as Shah Alam, his son and group's Managing Director, Sayem Sobhan Anvir, along with six other family members.
The ban was issued following an application by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
According to ACC Public Prosecutor Mahmud Hossain Jahangir, the other individuals under the ban are Afroza Begum, Sadat Sobhan, Sonia Ferdowsi Sobhan, Sabrina Sobhan, Safiat Sobhan Sanvir, and Safwan Sobhan.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is probing allegations of money laundering against Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir, and others.
Meanwhile, several international law firms have already submitted informal proposals to the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) as the government moves to appoint a firm to assist in recovering laundered money, a senior Bangladesh Bank (BB) official told The Financial Express.
The official noted that, under the law, the appointment of a global law firm requires "an international tender, which must be advertised in an international news outlet".
According to the official, Bangladesh initially aims to recover laundered money from five countries: the UK, the USA, Singapore, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The effort will later be expanded to target Bangladeshi assets siphoned off to a total of 10 countries.
The central-bank official says the law stipulates that a tender should be called in an international news outlet to appoint a global legal firm.
"Bangladesh government will share profit (a portion of the reclaimed money) with the global firms upon repatriation of the laundered money," he says about the bets.
Bangladesh will appoint legal firms to help recover laundered money from abroad, BB Governor Ahsan H. Mansur had said recently as episodes of huge illicit fund outflows kept coming into limelight after the August-5th changeover in state power. Speaking to journalists at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC, he mentioned that development partners and the global community were cooperating in this effort.
"We are following the legal process. Private legal firms will be appointed for this purpose," Mansur stated.
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