The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has applied to a Chattogram court to issue an Interpol red notice against former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed and his wife, Rukmila Zaman, over allegations of large-scale loan fraud and money laundering.
The petition was filed on Thursday in the court of Chattogram’s Senior Metropolitan Special Judge Md Abdur Rahman.
According to ACC counsel Mokarram Hossain, the anti-graft watchdog filed a case on July 24 accusing 31 people—including Javed, Rukmila, several of their relatives, and top officials of United Commercial Bank Limited (UCBL) and Aramit Group—of embezzling and laundering Tk 25 crore from UCBL’s Port Branch in Chattogram.
The case alleges that a fake trading company called Vision Trading was set up in the name of an Aramit Group employee to secure the loan under the guise of importing wheat, chickpeas, turmeric, and peas.
The funds were then transferred to four other shell firms—Alfa Traders, Classic Trading, Model Trading, and Imperial Trading—also linked to Aramit employees, and later siphoned off.
The ACC said UCBL’s corporate banking division approved the loan despite 17 adverse observations by its own credit risk committee. Funds were transferred via pay orders to the four companies and later withdrawn in cash.
Two Aramit officials—Abdul Aziz and Utpal Pal—have already been arrested in Chattogram and placed on remand for questioning.
Javed, son of late Awami League leader Akhtaruzzaman Chowdhury Babu and a former MP from Chattogram-13, served first as state minister and later as full minister for land. Following the political changeover in August 2024, the ACC began investigating him.
Courts have already ordered the seizure of hundreds of properties allegedly linked to Javed and Rukmila—343 in the UK, 228 in the UAE, and nine in the US—as well as 39 bank accounts holding over Tk 5.26 crore. In October 2024, a travel ban was issued against the couple, but they are reported to be living abroad.
