‘Starmer declines to meet Yunus tracking down missing billions’

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has declined a request to meet Bangladesh's Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, who is visiting London to garner support for efforts to recover billions allegedly laundered abroad by the deposed Sheikh Hasina regime, reports the Financial Times.

Yunus told the British daily that the UK should feel "morally" obliged to help his government track down funds "stolen" by the Awami League-led regime, much of it allegedly now in the UK.

However, Yunus said Starmer had not yet agreed to meet him.

"I have no direct conversation with him," Yunus said, adding that he had "no doubt" Starmer would support Bangladesh's efforts.

"This is stolen money," he said of the misappropriated funds.

According to the FT report, UK government officials confirmed that there were no plans for Starmer to meet Yunus and declined to comment further.

The UK government was already assisting in finding the money, the report quoted Yunus as saying.

However, according to the report, Yunus said the UK should feel "legally and . . . morally" obliged to help Bangladesh recover laundered money.

Yunus said the objective of his trip to the UK was to bring out "more enthusiastic support" from the UK.

Yunus, a Nobel-prize winning economist, has headed an interim government since a student-led movement ousted Sheikh Hasina last August.

The report says Bangladesh's investigations into the finances of Hasina and her Awami League have at times threatened to reflect badly on Starmer's UK Labour party. 

In January, Tulip Siddiq, then anti-corruption minister and a close ally of Starmer, was forced to resign after weeks of questions over her financial ties to her aunt, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

She has been accused of receiving material support, including property, from figures connected to the AL.

Tulip has denied any wrongdoing, but resigned from her ministerial position.

Meanwhile, Tulip, who remains an MP, has asked to meet Yunus in a letter this week.

She said she wanted to clear up the "misunderstanding" being perpetuated by Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission.

Yunus, however, told the Financial Times that he would not meet Siddiq.

"This is a legal issue . . . a legal process," he said of the investigations into Tulip's affairs. "It's not personal."

Yunus said that during her 16 year-rule, Hasina turned her "power into an opportunity to grab money" for some relatives and associates.

There had been a "big looting process", he said.

The report, citing Bangladesh authorities, said that around $234b was siphoned off while Hasina was in power, and the UK was a prime destination for "stolen" funds.

Yunus named Canada, Singapore, the Caribbean and the Middle East as other destinations for allegedly misappropriated assets, said the report.

He said the trip to the UK was "just the beginning", and that he was planning further visits. His administration was looking to get support from "all directions" in the UK, including businesses, financial institutions, the police and all intelligence agencies, he added.

"We need the support from the people of Great Britain."

His team still hoped to meet the prime minister, they said.

The UK's National Crime Agency last month obtained freezing orders on two London properties owned by the son of an ally of Hasina.