Six tycoons shortlisted for siphoned-off asset recovery rapidly

The Bangladesh Bank has shortlisted six tycoons and decided to speed up probe and disposal of cases against them over the laundered money siphoned off to several countries.

Investigators name the suspect conglomerates like NASSA, Beximco, Saifuzzaman, Sikder Group, S. Alam and Orion.

On Wednesday, the central bank released NPL data that show such bad loans hovering around Tk 6.44 trillion as per count until September 2025.

Talking to the FE, Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Ahsan H Mansur says the NPL data would increase further in December and may start declining from January 2026.

"The NPL bloated due to tycoons having siphoned off. The scar needs to heal," he says, in indication of speedy disposal of the big cases on the list.

Since laundering of funds taking bank loans is not happening after the fall of Hasina government, the NPL swelling would calm down after January 2026, he hopes.

Farhanul Gani Chouhury, BB governor's adviser on Stolen Asst Recovery, says based on NPL data and data compiled by the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), the six conglomerates have been selected to expedite trial.

The data are compiled from Credit Information Bureau (CIB) until June 30.

"The JIT has frozen assets worth around US$4.0 to $5.0 billion so far--90 per cent making up local assets-of those target groups," he told the FE writer.

Those six groups have been shortlisted out of 11 cases based on NPL data and intelligence report for civil proceedings for overseas-asset recovery from other countries, he says.

"We are encouraging the impacted commercial banks to go for their own NPL recovery via civil proceedings and the first step is to sign non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with international law firms to kick-start the process," says Mr Choudhury.

Already, a handful of banks, including UCBL, have signed NDA with a number of international firms to proceed on asset recovery, especially for Saifuzzaman Chowdhury case, he adds.

The BB team held meetings with heads of eight banks recently to encourage them to be the lead bank for each of the consortium to expedite the NDA process, he mentions, clarifying that this asset-recovery process won't involve any additional expenditures' from banks as the international firms will appoint litigation funders who will conduct feasibility study to find out the probability of recovery to fund these civil proceedings.

This overseas asset-recovery process would be on sharing basis among the impacted banks based on NPL proportion.

"The criminal proceedings-related cases already filed in local courts can have estimated timelines, but those yet to be filed cannot be predicted right now. I don't blame them, nor do I doubt their efficiency-this is simply how criminal investigations work," Mr Choudhury elaborates on the modus operandi of dealing with the money-laundering cases.

Mr Choudhury shares examples of some major global criminal cases, and in every cases, the process takes five to ten years.

"We need to be patient. When you seek to convict someone in a criminal case, you cannot proceed without building a solid foundation."

The high-powered Joint Investigation Team (JIT), comprising Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, the Anti-corruption Commission, the Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) and Criminal Investigation Department (CID), has picked the six cases, out of 11 tycoons selected earlier, to make some visible progress before the national elections, set for next February in the process of transition from the post-uprising interregnum.

Among other suspects, the Sheikh Hasina case has progressed most.

The rest include Basundhara Group, Nabil Group, Summit Group and HBM Iqbal.  However, due to less progress in data accumulation, the groups would be in next tier of asset- recovery moves by commercial banks.

The interim government formed the JIT, under a taskforce, to repatriate a cache of money siphoned off.

Mr Choudhury unveils that of the JIT-frozen assets worth US$ 4.0 to 5.0 billion-90 per cent being local-belong to those tycoons.

The owners of those six groups have been shortlisted, out of 11 cases selected earlier for asset recovery from other countries, he explains.

A white-paper panel formed by the Dr Yunus government has estimated that approximately $234 billion was siphoned off during ousted prime minister Hasina's tenure, often through fraudulent loans secured by controlling bank boards or by skimming funds from infrastructure projects.

Earlier, Bangladesh Bank had asked 14 commercial banks to make a move on recovery of their depositors' funds laundered by tycoons in to other countries.

Intelligence sources say they might go for some more prosecution relating to tax evasion and corruption in the month of November.

Dr Mansur holds the hope for bringing back some stolen money from the UK that is linked to Saifuzzaman's assets.

The JIT investigations have no specific timeline because of their complex nature.

The ACC has already started filing cases, each of which has its own timeline. However, the overall number of cases that will ultimately need to be filed is still uncertain, as new information continues to emerge every day. It is difficult to assess the full scope at this stage.

They are receiving chains of information one after another, and in many instances, the amounts involved are enormous. The ACC needs accurate and complete information before instituting each case.

The central bank aims to raise up to $100 million to fund international litigation targeting assets linked to politically connected figures from the fallen regime.

Earlier, Omni Bridgeway, a Sydney-based litigation funder, confirmed the Financial Times (FT) that senior managers of 16 Bangladeshi commercial banks, led by the BB governor, hold discussion with them.

"We are particularly interested in financing the recovery of non-performing loans tied to illicit fund transfers abroad," said Wieger Wielinga, Omni Bridgeway's managing director of enforcement, to the FT.

On November 24, 2025, a Dhaka court ordered the seizure of assets worth Tk447.8 million, including a 39.75-katha plot in Gulshan and 487 decimals of land, owned by Nassa Group Chairman Nazrul Islam Mazumder, in connection with ongoing corruption allegations.

Also, UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) froze around $110 million worth of property in London belonging to sons of Beximco Group Vice-Chairman Salman F. Rahman. It has also frozen eight companies of Saifuzzaman  Chowdhury in UK.

S Alam group's assets are traced in 6 countries while Bashundhara's assets found in 8 countries.

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