Court orders ACC to confiscate property of Salman F Rahman's son in UK

A Dhaka court today ordered the Anti-Corruption Commission to take steps to confiscate immoveable properties in London owned by Ahmed Shayan Fazlur Rahman, son of Salman F Rahman, who was the former private industry affairs adviser to the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

The court also ordered the ACC to confiscate the immoveable properties in London owned by Ahmed Shahriar Rahman, son of Ahmed Sohail Fasihur Rahman, who is the chairman of Beximco Group of Industries and also the brother of Salman F Rahman.

The court came up with the orders following corruption allegations brought against them.

Judge Md Zakir Hossain of Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court passed the order after ACC Deputy Director Muhammad Jaynal Abedin, who is leading the inquiry team, submitted an application in this regard.

The court also ordered authorities concerned to freeze two accounts of Fazlur Rahman and Shahriar Rahman at Barclays Bank PLC in United Kingdom and shares in a company, RR Global Trading, located in United Arab Emirates.

While passing the order, the judge ordered the ACC to send copies of the order to the Chief Executive and Chief Land Registrar of HM Land Registry in the United Kingdom, the Chief Executive of Barclays UK, and the Chairman of The Sharjah Economic Development Department.

In the application, Salman F Rahman and others have been accused of embezzling billions of taka from shareholders through share manipulation and fraud, taking loans of about Tk 36 billion from various government and private banks of the country by using illegal influence, and laundering billions of taka abroad.

During the investigation, information on bank accounts in the names of Salman F Rahman, his family members and other close associates was found.

The same court today issued a travel ban on Salman F Rahman, his wife Rubaba Rahman, their son Ahmed Shayan Fazlur Rahman, Salman's elder brother Ahmed Sohail Fasihur Raman and his son Ahmed Shahriar Rahman when an application was submitted in this regard.

On February 24, the same court ordered the ACC to freeze 358 bank accounts belonging to Salman F Rahman, his family members and associates.

The ACC on August 22 last year initiated the inquiry into Salman following allegations of corruption, embezzlement, and irregularities in the banking sector.

Salman, a prominent Bangladeshi businessman and former member of parliament, was arrested at Sadarghat on August 13 last year when he was attempting to flee the country.