Dhaka, Dec 23 (V7N) — Mohammed Saiful Alam, founding chairman and managing director of the Bangladeshi industrial conglomerate S Alam Group, has initiated legal proceedings as a Singaporean citizen to seek compensation for alleged financial losses.
Saiful claims his investments were severely harmed by the Bangladesh interim government’s actions, including asset freezes and other restrictions, following the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, the British daily The Financial Times reported on Monday.
The case, pursued by Saiful and his family, could jeopardize the interim government’s efforts to reclaim billions of dollars allegedly siphoned abroad under the erstwhile Awami League regime.
In a formal notice of dispute addressed to interim leader Dr Muhammad Yunus and key advisers, Saiful’s legal team said if the dispute was not resolved within six months, it would escalate the matter to international arbitration.
The claim is rooted in a 2004 bilateral investment treaty between Bangladesh and Singapore, where the Alam family is now based.
According to the December 18 notice, the family acquired permanent residency in Singapore in 2011 and citizenship between 2021 and 2023, renouncing Bangladeshi nationality in 2020.
The letter, prepared by the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and obtained by the Financial Times, alleges that the Bangladesh government’s actions have violated international investment treaties.
It accuses the authorities in Dhaka of freezing the family’s bank accounts, imposing travel bans, stripping control of their companies and subjecting them to investigations for alleged money laundering – all without formal notification.
The letter further claims that banks owned by the S Alam Group have been barred from issuing loans, their management teams replaced and business agreements arbitrarily cancelled.
“The value of the investors’ investments has been destroyed, in whole or in part, through the acts and omissions of Bangladesh, its agencies and instrumentalities,” the letter states.
“Those acts and omissions, which are ongoing, have violated and continue to violate the investors’ rights under [investment treaties] and the laws of Bangladesh, and give rise to the present dispute.”
The government did not respond to the Financial Times’s request for comment.
Dr Ahsan H Mansur, who assumed the role of central bank governor after Hasina’s toppling in August, told the newspaper in October that Saiful, his associates and other groups had embezzled funds from the banking system by seizing control of leading banks with assistance from members of a powerful military intelligence agency.
Ahsan accused these influential groups of orchestrating financial fraud through methods such as issuing fraudulent loans and inflating import invoices. He characterized these actions as “the biggest, highest robbing of banks by any international standards.”
The S Alam Group, which operates in industries including food, construction, garments and banking, has denied Mansur’s allegations, saying there is “no truth” to his claims.
A spokesperson for Bangladesh Bank said the issues were under investigation, adding that the central bank refrained from commenting to preserve the integrity of the investigation process.
END/MSS/AJ
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