The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has frozen properties in the United Kingdom belonging to former land minister of Bangladesh Saifuzzaman Chowdhury.
The action comes after legal requests from Bangladeshi authorities to seize assets owned by Chowdhury, a political ally of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the now-banned Awami League, according to a report published by Al Jazeera on Wednesday.
Chowdhury is under investigation by Bangladesh authorities for money laundering, reads the report.
Last night, in a statement to Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit), an NCA spokesperson confirmed the freezing order: “We can confirm that the NCA has secured freezing orders against a number of properties as part of an on-going civil investigation.”
The property freeze means, in effect, that the assets cannot be sold by Chowdhury.
The action by the police agency, often dubbed “Britain’s FBI”, coincided with this week’s visit to London by Bangladesh’s interim leader, Professor Muhammad Yunus.
Last year, Al Jazeera revealed Chowdhury, 56, owns more than 350 properties in the UK. While the full extent of the NCA’s action is not yet understood, the I-Unit can disclose that Chowdhury’s luxury home in St John’s Wood, London, is part of the asset freeze.
The home, bought for 11 million pounds ($14.8m), was the scene of secret filming by undercover reporters from Al Jazeera’s I-Unit. Reporters met Chowdhury during a long-running investigation into wealth that he had accumulated while he was still a government minister.
During the meeting, Chowdhury talked expansively to reporters about his global property portfolio and revealed his taste for expensive suits and designer “baby croc” leather shoes. He described his close ties to the now deposed Sheikh Hasina, telling Al Jazeera’s journalists, “I am like her son, actually.”
“She knows I have a business here,” he also told them.
The I-Unit revealed that Chowdhury, from a powerful family in the port city of Chittagong, amassed a property empire despite a $12,000 annual limit as part of the nation’s currency laws on the amount a citizen can take out of Bangladesh. The investigation uncovered that Chowdhury spent more than $500m on real estate in London, Dubai, and New York but did not declare his overseas assets on his Bangladesh tax returns.
The undercover meeting was part of the Al Jazeera documentary The Minister’s Millions, broadcast last October.
Chowdhury had been a close ally of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled Bangladesh in August 2024 after hundreds were killed as security forces cracked down on student protests.
After Hasina’s departure, Bangladesh authorities launched an investigation into allegations of widespread corruption in her government.
Following the uprising and street violence in Bangladesh, the I-Unit tracked down Chowdhury to his London home, where he could be observed taking leisurely walks around his exclusive neighbourhood, which includes Lord’s Cricket Ground.
In earlier statements to Al Jazeera, Chowdhury said the funds used to buy his overseas properties came from legitimate businesses outside Bangladesh, which he had owned for years. The former minister claimed he was the subject of a politically motivated “witch-hunt” against him.