Sikder family amasses wealth in Las Vegas, other big cities of the world

In exchange of investment, the Koi Resort and Residence, a luxury establishment set up on the Caribbean island state of St Kitts and Nevis, offers citizenship to this country with population of 53,000. The resort is to be run by Hilton Hotels. And the proprietors of this four-star hotel is none other than the Sikder Group of Bangladesh.

According to the Koi Resort brochure, the developers of the resort are the chairman of Bangladesh’s Sikder Group, Zainul Haque Sikder, and his son, the chief executive and chairman of the US-based Koi Group and KRL Hospitality, Nick Haque.

The Sikder family owns Koi restaurants in Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi and Bangkok. The family also has several companies and huge investments in the US, UK, Singapore and Switzerland. They even own a television channel.

The Sikder family, recently coming into the limelight for shooting at and abducting the managing director and associate managing director of Exim Bank, have amassed their wealth in several more countries around the world. The question has been raised not as to where they have wealth, but rather where they don’t have wealth. After the Exim Bank incident, Ron Haque Sikder and brother Dipu Haque Sikder left the country for Thailand by air ambulance.

The incident of their shooting at the Exim Bank MD took place on 7 May. After several failed attempts to cover up the incident, on 19 May Exim Bank filed a case in this regard with the Gulshan police station in the capital city. And on 25 May, the main accused in the case, Ron Haque Sikder and Dipu Haque Sikder, left the country in the guise of patients. The Sikder Group is known to be close to the government in power. They have long standing ties with the high up leadership of the ruling Awami League. Despite having no political identity, Zainul Haque Sikder’s daughter, Parveen Haque Sikder, has been made member of parliament from the reserved quota for women. There is business overseas in her name as well.

Several important leaders of the party tried to prevent the case from being filed. Even after the charges were filed, they asked the police not to take any action. However, when orders were issued from the top level of the government, the police were obliged to file the case.

Sources in Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) have said investigations into the case are being carried out. The vehicle used on the day of the incident has been seized. A meeting will take place at the police headquarters today to discuss progress made on the case so far.

In the meantime, special investigations have revealed that this wealth of the Sikder Group began to expand over the last decade. That was when National Bank, owned by them, began to fare badly. Till now, no member of the family has taken wealth out of the country in a legal manner. So there are naturally questions as to how they have amassed such wealth and property abroad.

According to the Bangladesh Bank regulations, there is no scope to send money abroad for investment purposes without permission from the central bank. There is provision, however, to take up to USD 30,000 abroad to open liaison offices or subsidiary offices for the expansion of export business. Bangladesh Bank has given permission to only a handful of companies to invest overseas. These investments are made under the export retention quota (ERQ). No company of the Sikder Group are included in this.

Executive director and spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank, Sirajul Islam, speaking to Prothom Alo, said no company of the Sikder Group is among the those who have taken permission from Bangladesh Bank to invest abroad. If anyone takes money abroad without permission, action is to be taken under the money laundering prevention act.

Lawyer Shahdeen Malik, speaking in this regard to Prothom Alo, said in recent times there have been reports of billions of taka being sent send overseas illegally. Imports and exports are the main means of capital flight. There naturally will be crime in any society, but when certain people go above the law, this increases alarmingly. They can do whatever they want. This was evident in the so-called casino operation. It is becoming more and more evident that certain people as going above the law. This level of criminal activity is not possible without state patronisation.

The Sikder family’s wealth is spread out all over various districts within the country too. The group has business in banks, insurance, power, health, housing, construction, hotels, tourism, aviation, and other sectors. Their biggest business at present is Power Pac Holdings in the power sector. The Power Pac Holdings website states that the Sikder Group has business in Thailand, Singapore, Canada and the US, though it does not mentions details of these businesses. Inquiries at the company registration offices of these countries revealed information of massive investments.

Persons involved in the Bangladesh financial sector have said that the Sikder Groups business began in flourish in Bangladesh after 2009. They were given several new power projects . When they took full control of National Bank, their wealth abroad began to amass. There are questions as to whether money was taken overseas through this bank too.

Former deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, Khondokar Ibrahim Khaled, speaking to Prothom Alo, questioned how they amassed so much wealth abroad. Surely not be legal means, he said. If the central bank and the government wants they can look into the source of this wealth. However, it does not seem that this is likely to happen.

Khondokar Ibrahim Khaled said that this recent incident shows just how powerful they are. When Atiur Rahman was governor of Bangladesh Bank, a letter was issued to National Bank, telling the bank to keep two members of the family as directors and remove three. They did not bother to reply. Later the laws were amended and there was provision to keep four members of the same family on the board of a bank. Presently, five members of the family are still directors on the board.

In April 2018, Restaurant Sathorn and The Club@Koi were opened in Bangkok, Thailand, with great fanfare. This was basically part of the Koi Groups hotel and entertainment business. Stars from all over the world joined the event. A extravagant feast was hosted by Nick Haque Sikder and Ron Haque Sikder. On 12 May 2018, photographs and a detailed report of the event appeared in Look East, a magazine published in Thailand. It was said that Japanese dishes, cocktails and wine was served in abundance at the courtesy of Ron and Rick Haque Sikder.

This was not their first investment in Thailand. They set up their first Koi restaurant in Sukumvit, Thailand. Branches of this restaurant then opened in various cities of the country. They have hotels and entertainment businesses in Thailand’s resort towns Phuket and Pataya too.

According to information regarding Thailand’s company registration, on 18 August 2004, the Koi Restaurant company was registered there. Its capital at the time was 60 million baht, equivalent then to only Tk 90 million. Its directors were Ron Haque Sikder, Syed Kamrul Islam and Prukpret.

Syed Kamrul Islam, known as Mohan, is the chief director officer of Sikder Group and Prukpret is a Thai national. The company has four directors, but seven shareholders. US citizens Rick Haque Sikder and Ron Haque Sikder own 49 per cent and Prukpret owns 51 percent. Though there are another four Bangladeshi investors, there was no investment on paper in their names. The family then went on to build up hotels, restaurants, clubs, spas and entertainment establishments all over Thailand.

The Sikders own two more restaurant chain franchises in Thailand - Carls’ Jr Restaurant and Hardy’s. These are basically California-based burger joints with 3800 franchise restaurant in 43 countries all over the world. There are 6 in Thailand run by the R&R Restaurant Group.

The Bangkok Post ran a detailed report about this on 9 November 2018. Two owners of R&R Group are Rick and Ron Haque Sikder. They have a company R&R Aviation in Bangladesh too. An aircraft of this company flew Ron and Dipu Haque Sikder out of the country to Bangkok. Their company has seven helicopters and two airplanes in the country.

Aurora Village Apartment LLC was started up in 2016 in Chandler, Arizona, USA. The company was registered on 9 September 2016, its registration number being 21215617. The company sells flats there. The proprietor of the company is Parveen Haque Sikder, Awami League MP in the reserved seats and daughter of Zainul Haque Sikder. Her address at the time of registration was given as 6015 W Trovita Place, Chandler, Arizona 85226.

The family also has at least 8 automatic car washes and several CNG refueling stations in California. In 2010, eight employees of the company filed a USD 6.6 million dollar suit against them for not paying due wages and overtime. Later there were media reports that some of the amount was paid through the court. Sikder Group Inc, ZMS Group Inc and Sikder Holdings Inc were accused in the case. Most of the shares of these companies are held by another son of the family, Dipu Haque Sikder. Reports in this regard, along with the names of the Sikder family, appeared on 4 October 2010 in the Los Angeles Times.

There are Koi Group restaurants all over America, including in the Trump Tower. Documents show Nick Haque as the group’s chairman. They have many other businesses in the US, including KRL Hospitality. They have housing businesses there too.

London, Singapore and Switzerland chapters

According to the Companies House, UK London, Sikder Group was registered in London in 2016. Its directors are Ron Haque Sikder and Rick Haque Sikder. They are both shown as US citizens and their address is in Sukumvit, Thailand.

In Singapore their registered business is Inter-Asia Group Pte Ltd. This company has 14 special villas in Pataya, Thailand and Sea Breeze Residence on Jomitien beach. The Koi Resort at St Kitts and Nevis is also under the Inter-Asia Group. It has offices in Singapore, Thailand and Bangladesh.

The local media in St Kitts and Nevis ran several reports about the hotel and resort there. South Florida Caribbean News quotes Nick Haque Sikder, CEO of the Koi Hospitality Group, as saying that the hotel is a dream come true and also that they had ventures in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, Bangkok and Abu Dhabi. SKN News on 5 February this year reported that construction of the hotel began in 2014. The report has a photograph of St Kitts and Nevis’ president at the time Denzil L Douglas and Haque Sikder inspecting the hotel site in 2013.

In Switzerland, the Sikder family not only owns hotels and housing, but even a television channel. Of the four directors of CNNMoney Switzerland, three are from Bangladesh. Two are Rick and Ron Haque Sikder and the other is Samir Ahmed, founder of RSA Capital. Their names appear on the CNNMoney Switzerland website. CNNMoney Switzerland, under contract with CNN, presents business news there.

Certain persons who have close contact with the Sikder Group, told Prothom Alo, after independence, Zainul Haque Sikder went to America and began a small business there. He later returned to the country. He and his children are now investing in various countries around the world, though the source of their investments remain unknown.

Former governor of Bangladesh Bank, Salehuddin Ahmed, told Prothom Alo, “This is the failure of our state. A family has amassed so much wealth abroad and yet no agency managed to catch this out. The government has not taken any visible strong stance to prevent capital flight from the country. The government’s political will is most important in bringing back this money of these powerful and influential people, or else this will just continue. Many will simply just leave forever.”

Salehuddin Ahmed went on to say, along with Bangladesh Bank, a stern role must also been taken up by the Financial Intelligence Unit, the Anti-Corruption Commission and the office of the Attorney General. If this wealth belongs to the country, they can play an active role in bringing it back. And Bangladesh Bank can look into whether this money is being sent through any particular bank out of the country.