U.K.City Minister Tulip Siddiq is facing questions about properties she used that were linked to her aunt and former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. © Getty Images
DHAKA — Bangladesh authorities have ordered the country’s banks to supply information about transactions linked to U.K. minister Tulip Siddiq, the niece of ousted leader Sheikh Hasina.
The order for details about Siddiq — whose job as City Minister involves battling financial corruption — widens a graft probe that has also ensnared other members of Hasina’s extended family.
Allegations that Hasina and her officials siphoned billions of dollars of state funds out of Bangladesh grew after she was deposed in a bloody, student-led uprising in August and fled to neighboring India.
This week, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) issued its order following an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which accused Hasina and some of her relatives of embezzling about $5 billion from a Russian-funded nuclear power plant project.
The South Asian country’s banks have been given five working days to supply information about transactions involving several of Hasina’s relatives, who also include Siddiq’s mother Sheikh Rehana and Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, according to a senior BFIU official. Rehana and Hasina are sisters.
“We have asked [for] the information to analyze and investigate the allegations,” the official told Nikkei Asia, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The anti-graft agency’s deputy director, Aktarul Islam, said multiple probes have been launched into the role relatives allegedly played in embezzling funds out of Bangladesh, including claims Hasina and her son laundered $300 million to the U.S., where he lives. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The agency is also looking into allegations that Hasina’s relatives misappropriated about $1.75 billion from several mega projects initiated during her 15-year rule, including one aimed at supplying housing for homeless people.
“The allegation is that they siphoned this money out of the country over a period of time,” Aktarul said.
While it was “not possible to determine the exact amount laundered at this stage,” the probe was likely to uncover the extent of the alleged corruption,” said Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh.
“These details will emerge through investigation. With the current global anti-corruption system, it’s entirely possible to trace the transactions and uncover everything,” he added.
“If the investigation proves that this large sum was laundered, as there is reason to believe, now is the right time to recover it. Although the process is complicated, it’s essential to begin.”
The investigations into irregularities at the $12.6 billion nuclear power plant project were initiated by Bangladeshi politician Bobby Hajjaj, a political rival of Hasina’s, who filed complaints with the corruption agency.
Hajjaj told Nikkei that Siddiq and other relatives are “intricately connected” with Hasina’s “multiple criminal activities,” but added that “Tulip Siddiq is largely involved in economic plunder.”
Siddiq has been under increasing pressure over British media reports about her use of properties linked to Hasina and Bangladesh’s longtime ruling Awami League party.
She has denied wrongdoing and a spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had “full confidence” in the Labour Party minister.
This week, Siddiq referred herself to a British government standards watchdog and said: “I am clear that I have done nothing wrong.”
Hasina’s son also denied the allegations on social media, saying, “The corruption allegations made against my family and I are completely bogus.”
Bangladesh’s deposed ex-leader faces a string of allegations, including murder charges, over her security forces using deadly violence against protesters last summer. Hasina and former officials have also been accused of running secret prisons and committing extrajudicial killings.
Dhaka has formally asked New Delhi to extradite her back to Bangladesh, but India has shown little willingness so far.
source : asia.nikkei