Fresh revelations about the offshore wealth of former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury have emerged.
While Bangladeshi anti-corruption investigators had earlier traced his assets in the UK, US, Dubai and Singapore, newly recovered documents show he also owns large properties in India, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Cambodia.
On Sunday, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) confirmed the discovery through its Public Relations Deputy Director Akhtarul Islam.
The breakthrough followed a late-night raid at 4:15 a.m. Saturday in the Shikalbaha union of Karnaphuli upazila, Chattogram, where 22 sacks of documents were seized.
ACC officials said the papers had been removed from factories owned by Aramit Group—linked to the former minister—and hidden in a private house. Local officials, police and residents witnessed the seizure.
Initial review suggests the documents cover extensive local and foreign property purchases, rent collection, maintenance expenses and evidence of large-scale money laundering.
ACC task force members noted it will take time to examine the huge cache and submit a full report with concrete evidence.
According to ACC Deputy Director Mashiur Rahman, two close associates of the former minister are already on five-day remand. Interrogations revealed that some documents had been spirited away to the home of Rukmila Zaman’s driver Ilyas—Rukmila being the wife of accused Javed Chowdhury.
ACC raided that address on Friday but the sacks had been removed about half an hour before the team arrived, as CCTV footage later showed. A subsequent raid led to the recovery of the 22 sacks elsewhere.
“Several bags opened so far include payment records for overseas property, rent collection details, bill payments and court orders,” Rahman told reporters.
Earlier, on 17 September, the ACC arrested two of Javed’s close aides—Utpal Pal and Abdul Aziz—and produced them before a court in connection with a case over the embezzlement and laundering of Tk 250 million from United Commercial Bank (UCBL).
The court granted five days’ remand. Investigators said Utpal Pal, though officially an AGM of Aramit Group, had long acted as Saifuzzaman Chowdhury’s personal agent for purchasing and managing overseas assets.
Two laptops and two phones seized from him reportedly contain extensive data now under forensic review. Abdul Aziz, also an AGM at Aramit’s Thai Aluminium unit, allegedly handled property transactions, rentals and maintenance.
The case, filed on 24 July by ACC Deputy Director Mashiur Rahman, named former land minister Javed Chowdhury and 30 others—including his wife Rukmila Zaman, former UCBL chairman, and several close relatives and bank directors.
According to the complaint, five shell companies—Vision Trading, Alpha Traders, Classic Trading, Model Trading and Imperial Trading—were opened in the names of Aramit staff. Using these, Tk 250 million in time loans was approved from UCBL’s Chattogram Port branch on 8 March 2020 despite 17 adverse observations from the bank’s credit committee. The funds were then siphoned into four other accounts and laundered abroad.
Investigators allege the tight family and business ties between the bank directors, loan applicants and approvers enabled the fraud. Once withdrawn in cash, much of the money was redeposited into Aramit Group accounts.
The ACC says it is now piecing together evidence from the seized materials to produce a comprehensive report on the former minister’s alleged money-laundering network.
