Bangladeshi authorities have requested information about British Municipal Affairs Minister Tulip Siddique’s bank accounts after her family was suspected of embezzling funds from the South Asian country.
The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Bureau on Tuesday ordered banks in the country to provide transaction details of all accounts linked to the former ruling family, officials said.
The instructions sent to the bank also included the name of her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who was forced out of office as Bangladesh’s prime minister last year following mass student-led protests.
The minister was named in an investigation by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission last month after Emirati Hasina’s political rivals accused Hasina’s family, including Siddique, of profiting from a Russian-backed nuclear power project. However, they are denying it.
Tuesday’s move marked a gradual buildup of pressure on the ousted leader and his family. In addition to Sheikh Hasina and Siddique, the order also covers five other members of her extended family, including Siddique’s mother Sheikh Rehana and Hasina’s US-based son Sajeeb Wazed. , they are also named in the ACC investigation.
Sheikh Rehana and Wazed could not be reached for comment.
After seizing power in August, Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus, appointed former IMF official Ahsan Mansour as the country’s central bank governor, and the country’s new leaders were pulled out of the banking system and sent abroad. The company has set out to recover billions of dollars that it claims were leaked to the United States. .
In an interview in October, Mansoor told the FT that an estimated Tk2 trillion ($16.7 billion) was smuggled out of the country after the forced takeover of major banks by members of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League political party. Fake loans, inflated import bills, etc.
Siddique’s allies said she only had British bank accounts and no overseas accounts.
“No evidence has been presented for these allegations. Tulip has not been contacted by anyone regarding this matter and completely denies the allegations,” Siddique’s spokesperson said regarding the allegations surrounding the Russian-backed nuclear power plant. the person in charge said.
The FT revealed on Friday that Siddique became the owner of a two-bedroom apartment near King’s Cross in 2004 without paying after it was gifted to him by a developer with ties to Awami League officials. I made it.
Mr Siddique, who was responsible for fighting corruption in Britain as a minister in Sir Keir Starmer’s Labor government, lives in properties linked to his aunt and the Awami League.
On Monday, Mr Siddique identified himself as an adviser to the British government on ministerial standards for personal property holdings and insisted he had done nothing wrong.
In a letter to Sir Rory Magnus, she said: “In recent weeks, I have been the subject of media reports, many of which are inaccurate, about my financial situation and my family’s ties to the former government of Bangladesh.”
“For the avoidance of doubt,” she added. “We want you to independently establish the facts on these issues, and of course we will make sure that we have all the information we need to do that.”
