The Crime Desk: The former land minister of Bangladesh, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, has built a real estate empire in the UK with more than 350 properties worth about 200 million pounds, or 2 thousand 769 crore Bangladeshi taka. Last Sunday (February 18), such information emerged in a Bloomberg report. The figures are based on a Bloomberg analysis of company house corporate accounts, mortgage charges, and HM Land Registry transactions in the UK.
According to the report, a property in the north-west area of London sold for 11 million pounds in 2022. Located close to Regent’s Park and Lord’s Cricket Ground, the property is located in one of the wealthiest areas of the British capital, London. The owner of this property is Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, a politician and former land minister of Bangladesh.
According to a Bloomberg report, the property is currently worth more than 13 million pounds. Its owner is a politician from Bangladesh. Under the currency control system in Bangladesh, no citizen, resident, or government employee can send more than $12,000 a year out of the country. No corporation can transfer money abroad without meeting certain conditions and approvals.
The report also says that since 2016, the companies he owns have built a real estate empire of more than 350 properties worth around £200 million in Britain. These properties range from luxury apartments in the heart of London to apartments in the Tower Hamlets area. Tower Hamlets is home to the largest Bangladeshi community in England. He also has some hostels in Liverpool.
Bloomberg, an international news agency headquartered in New York, has analyzed information on about 25 properties of Saifuzzaman Chowdhury in the UK. When these properties were bought, there was a severe housing crisis across the UK, and 90% of them were newly built. These transactions took place at a time when the British government had promised to make foreign property ownership more transparent.
Meanwhile, in the last election affidavit, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury mentioned a total wealth of 2.4 million dollars. His wife Rukhmila Zaman’s wealth is said to be 993 thousand dollars. But he did not declare the extent of his assets in Britain.
Bangladesh Bank’s spokesperson, Majbaul Haque Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, said that while living in Bangladesh, there is no provision to accumulate wealth abroad as the central bank is responsible for controlling the currency of Bangladesh. It is a general rule that we do not allow citizens to do this.
Neither Saifuzzaman Chowdhury nor his wife responded to requests for comment. He is listed as a ‘politically exposed person’ in Britain. The country’s 2017 Money Laundering Act defines the issue.
Bloomberg contacted the companies mentioned in their report, including financial services and legal firms involved in buying properties for companies owned by Saifuzzaman Chowdhury. Some of these organizations said that relevant procedures have been followed in this regard. However, they did not comment in detail due to concerns about commercial confidentiality.
Meanwhile, political figures like Saifuzzaman Chowdhury should have stronger background checks, say people associated with Britain’s property business. But identifying buyers is quite difficult. Nathan Emerson, chief executive officer of PropertyMark, said, “If someone is already ‘politically exposed’, then we have to be careful about them. But the background of buyers is not always immediately clear. When someone comes to our office, how do we know if he is a minister of a country or not?
