360 luxury properties, Rolls Royce and $8,000 suits: AJ investigation reveals ex-land minister Saifuzzaman’s property empire
According to the report, the former minister built a half-billion-dollar property empire on a modest official salary
Former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed has amassed a staggering amount of wealth abroad ranging from hundreds of luxury properties spread across multiple continents, luxury cars, crocodile shoes to Italian suits.
The former minister's property empire was revealed in a recent investigation by Doha-based Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit recently.
The 25.11-minute report titled "The Minister's Millions" has been published today (18 September) on Al Jazeera English's YouTube channel.
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In the video, Saifuzzaman is heard telling AJ journos, who met him posing as property investors, that he "has a very nice penthouse" and that "he loves suits".
"It's a very private house. I need a very secure house for my security"
"A Super 200 Suit costs €6,000 [$8,000]," he is heard saying at one point in the video report.
The minister is also seen giving a tour to the journos of his penthouse in the UK.
"It's a very private house. I need a very secure house for my security," he told the AJ journos during the tour.
The five-floor house has a home theatre, a gym, a 'private lift', and a 'new Rolls Royce' parked in the garage.
According to the report, the former minister built a half-billion-dollar property empire on a modest official salary.
"Strict currency laws restrict citizens from taking more than $12,000 a year out of Bangladesh, and tough government rules ban ministers from holding directorships or profiting from private businesses," a press statement issued by Al Jazeera Media Network on the report reads.
"My father was very close to the prime minister [Sheikh Hasina], actually, and I am also... She is my boss... She knows I have a business here [in Britain]"
The statement reads, that Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, who is also a close ally of the now deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, bought over 360 luxury properties in Britain alone worth $250m.
"His appetite for real estate spread to Dubai, New York, Singapore and Malaysia," states the press statement.
The politician boasted of his powerful connections, it added.
"My father was very close to the prime minister [Sheikh Hasina], actually, and I am also... She is my boss... She knows I have a business here [in Britain]," Saifuzzaman is quoted by the AJ.
The AJ report highlights that his property buying gained pace in 2017 when he set up UK companies but accelerated in 2019 when he became a government minister.
Sheikh Hasina is currently in exile in India following her government's brutal crackdown on student protests in July, and many of her ministers, including Chowdhury, have fled the country.
"Bangladesh authorities are now investigating claims that he laundered millions of dollars in the UK; they have frozen his bank accounts and taken control of his family-owned bank, UCBL, to protect depositors' money," reads the AJ Media Network statement
The AJ reporters met with the minister posing as property investors last year in his $14m London home where he bragged about spending thousands of dollars on hand-made crocodile shoes and tailored Italian suits from top London stores.
Chowdhury told Al Jazeera that his properties were purchased with funds earned by his legitimate businesses in the UK, the UAE and America, and that he is the victim of a political witch-hunt.
This is not the first time Saifuzzaman's huge wealth has come to the fore.
Bangladesh's interim government has already approached the United Kingdom to help probe the overseas wealth of allies of Hasina, with particular focus on identifying the source of funds used to pay for a UK property portfolio worth £150mn owned by Saifuzzaman.
The government is also investigating whether Hasina's regime diverted around $17 billion overseas from the country's banking system, Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur was quoted by Financial Times in a recent report.
Transparency International UK earlier this year cited the British real estate portfolio owned by companies linked to former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury as an example of "unexplained wealth".
The Financial Times reviewed the HM Land Registry and UK Companies House records and found that entities controlled by Chowdhury acquired at least 280 properties for more than £150mn.
It found that the bulk of the properties were acquired between 2019 and 2022, with Chowdhury's tenure as land minister starting from 2019.
The properties include the freehold to the listed Emerson Bainbridge House in Fitzrovia, central London, 61 properties in Tower Hamlets, east London, and the site of a Co-op supermarket in Bristol.
The financing of the UK property purchases are unclear, although the companies have registered charges at Companies House, indicating the use of mortgage debt, the Financial Times reported today.
Chowdhury's lawyer Ajmalul Hossain KC told the Financial Times that his client had "nothing to hide" and denied he had stolen anything.
In a press conference earlier this year, Chowdhury also said his overseas assets came from international business interests.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg News reported that Saifuzzaman Chowdhury has built up a UK real estate empire of more than 350 properties worth over Tk2,000 crore. The Bloomberg reports also suggest the former minister's involvement in investments in Manhattan, US, further adding to the scrutiny surrounding his financial portfolio.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) last month launched an investigation against Saifuzzaman over the alleged acquisition of illegal assets worth crores of taka through irregularities and corruption.
The ACC also sought information on stock market investments by the former land minister and his family members as part of its ongoing investigation.
