S Alam threatens int’l legal action over frozen assets

Mohammed Saiful Alam, one of Bangladesh’s wealthiest businessmen and founder of the industrial conglomerate S Alam Group, has initiated legal proceedings as a Singaporean citizen to recover losses allegedly caused by the Bangladeshi government's actions. 

S Alam claims his assets were frozen, and his investments were damaged following the ousting of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The move could complicate the interim government’s efforts to reclaim billions of dollars it alleges were misappropriated during Hasina’s regime.

In a formal notice of dispute sent to caretaker leader Muhammad Yunus and his advisers, S Alam's legal representatives stated that unless the matter is resolved within six months, they will pursue international arbitration under a 2004 bilateral investment treaty between Bangladesh and Singapore.

The letter, dated December 18 and seen by the Financial Times, outlines the S Alam family’s Singaporean citizenship status—obtained between 2021 and 2023 after renouncing Bangladeshi citizenship in 2020. It accuses Bangladeshi authorities of freezing the family’s bank accounts, imposing travel bans, seizing control of their companies,  investigating alleged money laundering without official notice, and arbitrarily restricting operations of S Alam-owned banks and cancelling business deals without due process.

“The value of the investors’ investments has been destroyed, in whole or in part, through the acts and omissions of Bangladesh,” the letter claims, alleging violations of both local and international investment treaties.

The Bangladesh government has not officially commented on the allegations. 

However, the country’s central bank governor Ahsan H Mansur, appointed after Sheikh Hasina’s removal in August, previously accused Alam and associates of orchestrating significant financial misappropriations. 

Mansur described their activities as “the biggest, highest robbing of banks by any international standards,” involving inflated import invoices and loans to shareholder groups.

S Alam Group, with interests spanning food, construction, garments, and banking, has denied these accusations, calling them baseless. A spokesperson for Bangladesh’s central bank stated that investigations into the allegations are ongoing and declined further comment.

Source: Financial Times