How a Bangladesh minister spent more than $500m on luxury property

Undercover sting reveals how the politician bought hundreds of overseas homes on a $13,000-a-year salary.

Bangladesh’s former Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury spent more than $500m on luxury real estate in London, Dubai, and New York but did not declare his overseas assets on his Bangladesh tax returns, Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) has revealed.

The I-Unit went undercover in the UK to investigate how the 55-year-old Chowdhury, from a powerful family in the port city of Chittagong, amassed a property empire despite a $12,000 annual limit as part of the nation’s currency laws on the amount a citizen can take out of Bangladesh.

Dr Shahdeen Malik, an advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, told Al Jazeera that the country’s constitution clearly states that politicians must declare their foreign assets.

Authorities in Bangladesh have frozen his bank accounts and are now investigating claims Chowdhury laundered millions of dollars into the UK.

Chowdhury had been a close ally of removed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who fled Bangladesh in August after hundreds were killed as security forces cracked down on student protests.

After Hasina’s departure, Bangladesh authorities launched an investigation into allegations of widespread corruption in her government.

The central bank of Bangladesh has since frozen the bank accounts of the former Land Minister Chowdhury and his family, while the state’s Anti-Corruption Commission has started an investigation into allegations that he had illegally acquired “thousands of crore taka” (hundreds of millions of dollars) and laundered it in the UK.

Our investigation into the #MinistersMillions uncovers how a powerful Bangladesh politician built a half billion dollar property