It’s Aladdin’s Magic Lamp,” reported Zyma Islam in the Dhaka’s Daily Star on August 4, 2023, pointing at how Mohammed Saiful Alam (S Alam) built his fortunes on three continents with Bangladesh’s money, but with no record of legal transfer orders from the authorities. Everything has been swept under the carpet.
Saiful Alam, owner of the S Alam Group of Industries built his business empire, some real and some fictitious, in Singapore, Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands and other places around the world, in addition to maintaining dozens of companies in Bangladesh, almost all of which run on huge bank loans.
Most of his business activities have been notoriously suspicious and questionable. He is said to have taken huge loans from self-owned banks and a few other financial institutions in which he has stakes, to the tune of $10 billion (more than Taka 1000 billion or 1 trillion, according to New Age) and laundered the funds out of the country. No approval was on file in the country’s Central Bank, which is the authority to remit money out or for investments abroad.
Even with approval, such largescale transfers of funds out of the country can be considered embezzlement. It is no surprise therefore that Bangladesh’s cash reserves have been decreasing exponentially and it had to mint Taka 108 trillion last month to maintain its cash flow, raising the inflation rate.
Such clandestine flights of capital are only possible with connections with the ruling coterie. Indeed, S Alam is said to be a close confidante of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy.
Faruk Khan and Brothers, other cronies of the ruling mother-son duo, reportedly embezzled the country out of $12 billion for the failed power sector.
Taka 1000 billion, which is 25% of the national budget, can employ 120 million productive workers for a month or can build three equivalents of the Padma Bridge.
“The S Alam Group is perhaps the most dramatic symptom of a malaise that has brought the financial sector to its knees,” reported the Daily Star on December 6, 2022. Sheikh Hasina’s administration did not react when the media in Singapore reported the S Alam Group’s purchase of a huge real estate property worth millions of dollars, despite the fact that the company was neck deep in debt in Bangladesh.
There are about 50 companies that are listed under S Alam Group. They include banking (10), power and energy (7), properties (7), trading (6), food industries (6), steel (5), cement (2), media (2) shipping (1), insurance (1) manufacturing (1) and transportation (1). It acquired the Islamic Bank, earlier owned by a top member of the Jamaat-e-Islam, Social Islami Bank and Ekushe TV through illegal manipulations. The company “violated banking rules,” and overvalued the assets for “excessive borrowing,” according to The Daily Star.
The Coalition for Human Rights & Democracy in Bangladesh (CHRD Bangladesh) condemns such gross financial irregularities in Bangladesh, in collusion with high political and administrative officials. CHRD Bangladesh also demands that all the financial transgressors at all levels be brought to justice and the plundered funds be returned to the country through the international justice system.