The Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Court has ordered the freezing of multimillion-dollar foreign assets of Bashundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan and his family in six countries and two offshore jurisdictions.
The court passed the order on November 21 after hearing a petition filed by Anti-Corruption Commission deputy director Nazmul Hussain.
It concluded that Sobhan and his family amassed huge wealth beyond their disclosed sources of income through illicit means and subsequently laundered the proceeds to locations, including the United Arab Emirates, Slovakia, St Kitts and Nevis, Switzerland, the British Virgin Islands, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Cyprus.
The petition, detailing their foreign assets, sought a court order to freeze both movable and immovable assets of Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, his wife Afroza Begum, their sons Sayem Sobhan Anveer, Safiyat Sobhan, Safwan Sobhan, and Anveer’s wife Sabrina Sobhan, Sadat Sobhan’s wife Sonia Ferdowsi Sobhan and Safwan’s wife Yasha Sobhan for the sake of a proper investigation into the allegations of amassing huge assets.
These assets include bank accounts, real estate, and business holdings.
The order, issued under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012, will remain in effect until further notice, the court said.
Copies of the court order were sent to the State Register of Slovakia, Citizens International of St Kitts and Nevis, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Switzerland, British Virgin Islands ministry of financial services labour and trade, UK Department for Business and Trade, Singapore Exchange of Singapore, chairman of Habib Bank in the United Arab Emirates chairman, and chief executive officer of the ministry of interior and Department of Lands and Surveys of Cyprus for necessary action as per mutual legal assistance request.
The court also ordered the publication of this order in the government official gazette along with widely circulated newspapers for information of the citizens.
The court also asked its office to send the order to the secretaries of the ACC, the Public Security Division of the home ministry to communicate the order with Mutual Legal Assistance Request for subsequent actions in regard to execution of the order.
The commission provided details of property acquired abroad in the name of Akbar Sobhan and his family to court.
It said that its inquiry found that they took huge amounts of loans in the name of their companies from different banks, laundered a portion of the loans outside Bangladesh and purchased assets and invested in different companies in those countries and offshore havens.
As Bangladeshi nationals, they were bound to apply to the Bangladesh Bank seeking permission to transfer any capital outside Bangladesh, but they did not do so, the commission stated in the petition.
Besides, they were bound to declare all legal incomes and assets in their income tax returns to the National Board of Revenue, but they did not do so, said the petition.
Bashundhara Group managing director Sayem Sobhan Anveer obtained citizenship by investing 3 million euros in Slovakia and Yasha Sobhan spent 2 million euros to obtain citizenship in Cyprus. Ahmed Akbar Sobhan and his wife Afroza got citizenship by investing $25 million in St Kitts and Nevis, stated the petition.
They and their sons and daughters-in-law invested in 19 companies in these countries and bought houses in Cyprus, it said.
Safwan and Sonia Ferdowsi have opened bank accounts in Habib Bank in the UAE and Eurobank in Cyprus and transacted illegal money through the accounts, it stated.
From the Habib Bank account of Safwan, 287.5 million euros were transferred to Sonia’s Habib Bank account which was remitted to Cyprus. They have $3,56,970 in their accounts, the petition stated.
Sonia Ferdowshi Sobhan was beneficiary or shareholders or directors in a number of companies in British Virgin Islands that included Asimina Consulting Inc, Francatina Development Inc, Soms Group SA, Akebia United SA, Norea Holdings Limited, Evelina Lordanova Ivanova, Stat Holdings Services, Francatina Development Inc and Cordyline Universal SA, according to the commission.
Besides, an investigation, conducted by The Observer in collaboration with the Transparency International, has revealed the information in a report published in the British daily Guardian on Sunday.
The report stated that family members of Ahmed Akber Sobhan owne two vast properties in the United Kingdom, acquired for a combined £13 million and owned via companies registered in the
British Virgin Islands, Golden Oak Venture Limited and Kaliakra Holdings Limited.
A third, a French-style mansion, owned by one of Sobhan’s sons, appeared to be under construction, the Observer investigation found.
One £10m mansion, on a gated estate in London’s Kensington, is owned by Sobhan’s son and Bashundhara Group vice chairman Safwan Sobhan, through a company named Austino Limited, it stated.
A similar arrangement relates to a £5.6m Chelsea waterfront property owned by Safwan’s brother, at a cost of £28 million, it said.
The apartment was purchased by Red Pine Trading, which is based in the British Virgin Islands but gives its address as a tower in Singapore, the report said.
An investigation was under way against Akbar Sobhan and his family members and their interests in different companies under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004 along with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2012.
An average of $16 billion was illicitly siphoned off from Bangladesh annually between 2009 and 2023 amid systemic tax evasion, misuse of exemptions, and poorly managed public finances under the authoritarian Awami League, according to the White Paper on the state of Bangladesh Economy.
The white paper was submitted to chief adviser Muhammad Yunus on Sunday by a 12-member committee headed by economist Debapriya Bhattacharya.
The amount was more than double the combined value of net foreign aid and FDI inflows, it said.
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