Bangladeshi authorities have requested details about UK Metropolis minister Tulip Siddiq’s financial institution accounts following allegations that members of her household embezzled funds from the South Asian nation.
The Bangladesh Monetary Intelligence Unit on Tuesday ordered banks within the nation to supply transaction particulars for all accounts linked to the previous ruling household, based on individuals conversant in the matter.
The directives despatched to banks talked about amongst others Siddiq, whose aunt Sheikh Hasina was ousted as prime minister of Bangladesh final 12 months following student-led mass protests.
The minister was named in a probe final month by the Anti-Corruption Fee in Bangladesh after a political rival of Sheikh Hasina accused her household, together with Siddiq, of taking a lower from a Russia-backed nuclear energy mission, claims they’ve denied.
Tuesday’s transfer marked a ratcheting-up of strain on the ousted chief and her household. Along with Sheikh Hasina and Siddiq, the orders lined 5 different members of their prolonged household, together with Siddiq’s mom Sheikh Rehana and Hasina’s US-based son Sajeeb Wazed, who had been additionally named within the ACC probe.
Sheikh Rehana and Wazed couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
After taking energy in August, Bangladesh’s interim authorities led by Muhammad Yunus named Ahsan Mansur, a former IMF official, to move the nation’s central financial institution and start clawing again billions of {dollars} the nation’s new leaders declare had been taken out of the banking system and funnelled abroad.
In an interview in October, Mansur advised the FT that an estimated Tk2tn ($16.7bn) had been taken in another country after the compelled takeovers of main banks by individuals linked to the Awami League, the political social gathering led by Sheikh Hasina, utilizing strategies equivalent to bogus loans and inflated import invoices.
An ally of Siddiq stated that she solely held a UK checking account and didn’t possess any accounts abroad.
“No proof has been introduced for these allegations. Tulip has not been contacted by anybody on the matter and completely refutes the claims,” stated a spokesperson for Siddiq relating to allegations surrounding the Russia-backed nuclear energy plant.
The FT revealed on Friday that Siddiq grew to become the proprietor of a two-bedroom flat close to King’s Cross in 2004 with out paying for it after it was gifted by a developer with hyperlinks to senior figures within the Awami League.
Siddiq, who as a minister in Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour authorities has accountability for combating UK corruption, has lived in a number of properties linked to her aunt and the Awami League.
On Monday Siddiq referred herself to the UK authorities’s adviser on ministerial requirements over her property holdings and has maintained that she has achieved nothing improper.
In a letter to Sir Laurie Magnus, she stated: “In latest weeks I’ve been the topic of media reporting, a lot of it inaccurate, about my monetary affairs and my household’s hyperlinks to the previous authorities of Bangladesh.”
“For the avoidance of doubt,” she added. “I would really like you to independently set up the info about these issues. I’ll clearly guarantee you may have all the data you want to do that.”
