The untold story of Nafeez Sarafat's rise

The rise of Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat, a banker-turned businessman who has amassed billions of taka only in one and a half decades, surprises many.

There is no end to the curiosity about how a mid-level banker until 2009 accumulated so much wealth, how he secured patronage from the top level of the government and how he established control over various intelligence and regulatory agencies.

According to intelligence sources, the rise of Sarafat, hailing from Gopalganj, began after the Awami League assumed office in 2009 until when he was the head of consumer banking division of ICB Islamic Bank. He got the licence of an asset management company with 25 per cent ownership - Race Asset Management Limited, which later managed 12 mutual funds.

His wealth made a great leap after Awami League formed government for the second consecutive term in 2014.

According to the intelligence sources, the second phase of his rise began with the help of Mohammad A Arafat, the chairman of pro-Awami League think tank Suchinta Foundation and later the minister of state for information and broadcasting of Bangladesh. He attained partial ownership of businesses in various sectors including banking, capital market, electricity generation, private university, media, etc.

The sources said Nafeez Sarafat told Mohammad A Arafat that he was a financial expert and that he wanted to use his expertise for Awami League. Arafat referred him to his friend Sajib Wazed Joy, the son of then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, according to the sources.

"Sarafat managed to convince Joy that he could serve the Awami League in the financial field. Joy told him he needs to draw attention of his mother to do something  big. On his suggestion, Sarafat attended three public meetings of Awami League - one in Dhaka and two outside Dhaka around that time. In all the public meetings, he chose a place to stand where Sheikh Hasina could easily see him while getting on and off the dais," one source said.

"After these exercises, he was given an opportunity to meet Sheikh Hasina. He started addressing Hasina Fufu [paternal aunt]. Sheikh Hasina later instructed her military and security advisor Tariq Ahmed Siddique to help Sarafat, who referred him to the head of one of the country's top intelligence agencies," he added.

The intelligence agency and a few security agencies later turned into Sarafat's loyal defenders which protected his interests, no matter they were legal or illegal. They played a role in detention and subsequent death in custody of Moshtak Ahmed, the founder of Bangladesh's first commercial crocodile farm, just for sharing a cartoon, drawn by Ahmed Kabir Kishore, on Sarafat on his Facebook wall.

Sources said that when M Khairul Hossain was the chairman of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), Sarafat's Race Asset Management got extension of 10 of its mutual funds by 10 years each, which was supposed to be liquidated at the time, at the recommendation of then finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith.

They said that after becoming the chairman of Padma Bank [formerly The Farmers Bank] established by former home minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, he tried to take control of Southeast Bank in connivance with the intelligence agency.

He secured board of directors' berth for his wife Anjuman Ara Sahid at Southeast Bank and tried to make his son Chowdhury Rahib Sarafat a director too, but the attempt failed as he was too young.

After Sarafat took over as the chairman of Padma Bank in 2017, the central bank gave the private bank several policy concessions believing in Sarafat's statement that he would bring in foreign investment for the bank. He failed to keep his words but managed to sell 65 per cent shares of Padma Bank to state-owned Sonali Bank, Rupali Bank, Agrani Bank, Janata Bank and Investment Corporation of Bangladesh at Tk 7.15 billion.

He left the bank in January 2024, when its defaulted loans rose to record 62 percent of its loan portfolio.

Sources said Rajuk allotted a 171.16 Katha plot in Purbachal New City Project for Canadian University of Bangladesh, a university Arafat leads as the Trustee Board chairman, in 2018 on the instruction of the government high-up.

The companies Sarafat and his family have partially owned include Padma Bank, Southeast Bank, Canadian University of Bangladesh, Race Asset Management Limited, Unique Meghnaghat Power Limited, Dainik Bangla newspaper, Citizen TV, National Tea Company, etc.

According to intelligence agencies, Saraft, his wife and brother have eight flats in Dhaka's Bashundhara residential area, Green Road, Gulshan, Baridhara and Nikunj and a plot in Gulshan. Apart from this, he owns several flats in Canada.

Sharafat would introduce himself as not only nephew of Sheikh Hasina, but also the cousin of former IGP Benazir Ahmed, nephew of ex-finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal. He was on good terms with Sheikh Hasina's advisor and Beximco Group Vice-Chairman Salman F Rahman, former Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rauf Talukder and former home minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir.

However, his empire collapsed with the fall of Sheikh Hasina government and he has gone into hiding.

Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), the financial intelligence department of the central bank, has frozen the bank accounts of Nafeez Sarafat and his family members.

The Financial Crimes Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has launched an investigation into the alleged fraud and forgery by Sarafat, his wife and their organization. The agency has already revealed that Sarafat, as chairman of Race Asset Management Company, manipulated the share prices of several companies.

On the other hand, a primary investigation by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which has formed a three-member team to trace his assets, found that Sarafat amassed wealth worth billions of taka through various illegal means.

The Financial Express could not reach him for his version about the alleged corruption as his phone was found switched off.