WATCH | HOW A BANGLADESH FORMER LAND MINISTER SAIFUZZAMAN SPENT MORE THAN $500M ON LUXURY PROPERTY

Sat 21 September 2024:

Bangladesh’s former Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury spent more than $500m on luxury real estate in London, Dubai, and New York but did not declare his overseas assets on his Bangladesh tax returns, Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) has revealed.

The I-Unit went undercover in the UK to investigate how the 55-year-old Chowdhury, from a powerful family in the port city of Chittagong, amassed a property empire despite a $12,000 annual limit as part of the nation’s currency laws on the amount a citizen can take out of Bangladesh.

Charles Douglas Solicitors LLP, Market Financial Solutions, Paresh Raja, DBS Bank and Ripon Mahmood told Al Jazeera they had carried out robust anti-money laundering checks on Chowdhury. They also said his funds came from legitimate and longstanding businesses in the United Arab Emirates, the United States and the UK, not Bangladesh.