Former land minister amasses huge wealth and property in US and Dubai

Former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed and his wife Rukhmila Zaman Chowdhury have amassed huge wealth and property in the United States and in Dubai. They have huge sums of money deposited in foreign banks. Neither Saifuzzaman nor any member of his family have taken permission from Bangladesh Bank to take money abroad, giving rise to questions about this huge wealth amassed overseas.

Bangladesh Bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit has asked the banks within the country to freeze all accounts of Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed, his wife, children and their business establishments. No transactions can be carried out from these accounts over the next 30 days. The credit cards in their names cannot be used either. Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) issued these directives by letter yesterday.

Rukhmila Zaman Chowdhury is the chairman of the private sector United Commercial Bank (UCB). Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed had been land minister of the Awami League government in 2018-23. But after the media flashed news of his huge wealth abroad before the election last year, he was not made minister in the last government.

Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and Rukhmila Zaman Chowdhury are reportedly both out of the country at present and so their statements regarding the wealth they have built up in the US and Dubai could not be availed. However, in March this year Saifuzzaman Chowdhury told a press conference that his father had business in London back in 1967. He himself had studied in the US and has been doing business there since 1991. He later expanded his business to the UK. He has income tax records there too. He said he had taken bank loans for his overseas business.

Bangladesh Bank records reveal that Saifuzzaman Chowdhury opened a company by the name of Rapid Raptor FZE in the UAE in 2014  and another company Zeba Trading FZE in 2015. Rapid Raptor FZE is registered as a computer and software company and Zeba Trading for sales of construction material. Saifuzzaman has banks accounts with Dubai Islamic Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Janata Bank Dubai branch. A total amount of 39,583 dirham and 6,670 dollars is deposited in these accounts. From 2017 till last month, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury bought and sold 226 properties in the UAE.

Two properties was bought on 15 September and 30 November 2023 in the name of Rukhmila Zaman in Dubai’s Al Barsha South 3. These properties are worth 2,250,369 dirham equivalent to 75 million taka (7.5 crore) in Bangladeshi currency.

Visiting Dubai in March last year, this Prothom Alo correspondent found that Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and his family had amassed wealth there. Their five-star hotel was under construction there in the Business Bay are of this important and expensive commercial city of the Middle East.

BFIU also found evidence of their assets in the US. From 8 March to 10 December 2021 a total of 45,340 US dollars was deposited in the US-based TD Bank. The money was deposited through First Abu Dhabi Bank and HSBC Bank. Some money was deposited from a US company Capital World Maritime Limited.

Also, 1,765,000 US dollars was deposited to the First American Title Insurance Company on behalf of Saifuzzaman Chowdhury’s company Aramit Properties LLC and GTS Properties LLC. Over a span of time from 2005, nine properties were bought there through Nahar Management Inc which was connected to Saifuzzaman Chowdhury. This information was available in BFIU records. Aramit Properties LLC, GTS LLC and Nahar Management Inc are all US-based companies.

BFIU officials say that so far they only have information on Saifuzzaman Chowdhury’s assets in these two countries. But they think that he has much more assets than this in the UK.

Before the last election, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has said at a press conference, a certain minister has over 23 billion taka in investments and business overseas. Later this minister was identified as Saifuzzaman Chowdhury. It was learnt that the former minister had opened companies in the name of his wife Rukhmila Zaman and daughter Zeba Zaman. He also opened a company overseas in the name of his family business Aramit Group. During a press conference last March Saifuzzaman Chowdhury admitted having business and property in London.

After the fall of the government, over 150 shareholders of United Commercial Bank demanded that the bank be freed from the control of the former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and his family. They took up position in from for the UCB head office in Gulshan on Thursday, voicing this demand. They displayed festoons and raised allegations of the former land minster siphoning off money overseas and other irregularities related to the bank.

In a letter sent to Bangladesh Bank, a number of shareholders of the bank said that even though Rukhmila Zaman was chairperson of the bank, it was Saifuzzaman Chowdhury who basically carried out this responsibility and the bank was sinking into bankruptcy due to his arbitrary actions and embezzlement. The letter stated that Saifuzzaman Chowdhury had assets worth 18.88 billion taka in the UK, paid for with the money embezzled from the bank’s depositors. The letter went on to say the bank had been made into a family business from 2017 and was faced with blatant looting, financial corruption and money laundering. As a result, default loans had mounted in the bank. In 2017 the bank’s default loans stood at 17.92 billion taka and in 2023 this increased to 27.82 billion taka.

The late Awami League leader Akhteruzzaman Chowdhury of Chattogram, father of the former land minister, had been the founder chairman of UCB. Bank sources say that in 2017 the one of the major shareholders of the bank, family members of the Partex Group owners, were forced to drop out of UCB. Saifuzzaman Chowdhury’s wife Rukhmila Zaman was then made the bank’s chairperson. As she was in the UK, the bank was basically run by Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, the bank’s senior officials confirm.

When asked about the matter, Bangladesh Bank’s former chief economist Mustafa K Mujeri told Prothom Alo, “Everyone knows that the powerful persons have siphoned out money. That is why the dollar crunch in the country has been on for so long. A lot of money was laundered by forceful takeover of banks. The main task now is to identify those responsible and take action against them. Such action must be taken so that no one launders money in future. Also, initiative must be taken to bring back the funds by making agreements with the countries where the money has been transferred.”