Bangladeshis Linked to Hasina Regime Move UK Property Assets Amid Investigations

Nearly a year after Bangladesh's student-led revolution ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, investigations reveal that officials linked to her regime engaged in significant UK property transactions to protect assets amid ongoing probes in Dhaka. Reports by The Guardian and Transparency International show that politically connected figures sold, transferred, or refinanced luxury real estate in London and Surrey shortly before and after the revolution, raising concerns about illicit capital flight and money laundering. British authorities, including the National Crime Agency, have frozen assets worth over £260 million belonging to key Hasina-era figures such as Salman F Rahman’s family and former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, who owned more than 300 UK properties. Despite these freezes, transactions continued, involving ownership transfers to shell companies and mortgage renegotiations, highlighting gaps in UK due diligence and the facilitation of these deals by law firms and consultants. Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, is urging the UK to freeze more assets as investigations proceed, emphasizing the role of luxury UK real estate in the alleged looting of state contracts and the banking system during Hasina’s tenure. The revelations have intensified calls for stronger international cooperation to prevent corrupt elites from evading justice through offshore property schemes.