Freeze accounts of former land minister, his wife: BFIU to banks

The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) today instructed all banks to freeze all accounts of former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed and his wife Rukhmila Zaman, who is also the chairman of United Commercial Bank PLC.
A senior official of the anti-money laundering agency confirmed the matter to The Daily Star.
Banks have been instructed to block all types of withdrawals through the individual or business accounts at their names.
Banks have also been asked to inform within the next five working days if they find any bank account in the names of other members of Javed’s family.
The former land minister has at least 260 properties in the United Kingdom for which he has paid at least 134.76 million British pound or Tk 1,888 crore, according to The Daily Star’s calculation from company filings publicly available on UK government websites.
The figure was mentioned in a report published on The Daily Star in December last year.
The three-time Awami League lawmaker has also at least 537 mortgages against properties in the UK. Majority of these properties are in London.