Bangladesh: The fortunate corrupts
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
According to latest press reports, authorities in Singapore, at the
request of Anti Corruption Commission [ACC] of Bangladesh has seized
US$ 1.8 million in a local bank, which was deposited by Arafat Rahman
Koko, son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Such actions by ACC
came just weeks before the much anticipated general election in
Bangladesh. Although authorities in Dhaka are continuing to hunt
wealth and illegal activities of the former Prime Minister and leader
of Bangladesh Nationalist Party [BNP], it is rumored that the military
controlled regime in Dhaka are ignoring the fact of huge wealth and
illegal money owned by Sheikh Rehana, who is the younger sister of
another former Prime Minister and leader of Bangladesh Awami League,
Sheikh Hasina.
Arafat Rahman Koko, youngest son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, has
foreign currencies worth around US$ 1.8 million deposited in a
Singapore bank but he concealed its information in his wealth
statement submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission [ACC].
With the help of Singapore government the anti-graft watchdog came to
know that Koko has 2.61 million Singaporean dollars and 261,000 US
dollars. The ACC revealed the stunning information at a routine press
briefing on Thursday.
It also informed that the son of the former prime minister owns a firm
named ZASZ Trading and Consulting Pte Ltd in Singapore jointly with a
Singapore national, who is Koko's paid service agent. The whole amount
was deposited in the joint account of that firm at different times in
2005.
Non-resident foreigners cannot open a company in Singapore and has to
have a Singaporean agent to do that, ACC sources said.
Interestingly, 17 days after anti-corruption drive was launched in
Bangladesh, Koko transferred 2.13 million Singapore dollars [SGD] to
an account with the Singapore branch of French bank Credit Industriel
et Commercial from the ZASZ joint account.
Singapore government recently froze the ZASZ account and sent
necessary documents to the ACC, prompting the commission to initiate
legal procedures.
Of the amount, China Harbor Engineering sent about 1.8 million SGD to
that account and the rest came from other sources. The performance of
China Harbor Engineering in Bangladesh is questionable for reasons
including delaying to carry out work on various pretexts.
ACC Director General [Admin] Col Hanif Iqbal told reporters that they
received evidence and necessary papers that confirm Koko's ownership
of the money.
"Legal procedures have already been initiated and the commission is
currently enquiring the matter. Once the enquiry finds the allegations
are true, legal proceedings will be taken against the persons involved
and efforts will be made to bring back the money," Hanif said.
The investigation will confirm if there was any violation of the
Foreign Exchange Regulations of Bangladesh Bank, if the money was
shown in Koko's wealth statement, and if any offence was committed
under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ACC has already
filed three cases against Koko.
According to Singapore government's information, Koko registered the
trading and consulting firm in that country with the help of a few
associates and the Singaporean service agent on April 10, 2004.
China Harbor Engineering sent to the firm's account 920,000 SGD and
830,000 SGD on May 6 and 31 and another 829,000 lakh SGD on August 1
in 2005. The ZASZ received another 303,000 SGD from another source on
October 6 the same year.
Singapore government's information says Koko transferred 830,000 SGD
from the account of ZASZ to another place on July 29, 2005.
The Singapore government informed the ACC about the matter through its
Attorney General's Office following Bangladesh government's request
for mutual legal assistance. The Bangladesh government sent the
request under the UN Convention against Corruption to help find
information regarding wealth amassed through illegal means and
corruption and restrain use of that money by identifying the corrupt
person.
Although ACC requested Singapore and other foreign nations for finding
illegal wealth of the family members of Khaleda Zia, it is learnt
that, it is keeping mum on the issue of freezing accounts held by
Sheikh Rehana and members of her family, where they have deposited
huge amount of money received as bribes and kick-backs from various
foreign companies. During Awami League tenure [1996-2001], Sheikh
Rehana was known as `Madame Commission', who was the exclusively
authorized person of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to
transact all illegal cash dealings. ACC also stopped investigating the
matter of illegal wealth accrued by another top ranking Awami League
leader, Tofael Ahmed, as he accorded support to the present regime
after the political change in 2006.
It may be mentioned here that, Sheikh Rehana owns expensive properties
and wealth in United Kingdom although she does not have any valid
source of income for acquiring such huge property. Son of former Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina, Sajib Wajed Joy, who lives in United States,
also acquired property worth millions of dollar, when his mother was
Bangladesh's Prime Minister.
Joy has hardly much childhood association with Bangladesh. His mother
lived a life in exile since August 1975, spending a long asylum in
India under the patronage of the Indian government. She would live at
Basant Bahar, the safe house run by the agencies there.
As a result, Joy had his early education in India where he spent much
of his formative years. They may have returned to Bangladesh in 1981,
but there was a sense of isolation from normal family life for Joy.
This was only to be expected, given his boarding school years, the
intense political activities of his mother, all compounded with the
estrangement of his parents.
Persons who knew him then say he was a rather reckless youth. Even
later, he reportedly met with an accident in Gulshan in the
mid-nineties, totaling the Pajero jeep of a businessman of
Narayanganj. Rather than keeping him in Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina sent
her son to the US for further studies. She perhaps felt that would
give him some stability, a sense of responsibility.
Life in the USA didn't seem to change Joy much. That reckless trait in
his character showed itself time and again. Records show several cases
were filed against him. He has been charged on various occasions with
drunken driving, speeding, reckless driving, unlawful use of radar
detection device, and even carrying an unlicensed gun. He even had to
spend time in jail for his misdemeanours, not to mention all the fines
he had to pay too. If Hasina had political aspirations for him, she
couldn't have chosen a more unsuitable candidate.
As it is, he had a basically apolitical character. He disliked the
gathering of poor people at home and expressed a distinct disinterest
in politics. He often snubbed persons who, out of affection or simple
curiousity, came to meet Sheikh Mujib's grandson.
He continued his fast life in the US as he had no sense of belonging
with Bangladesh, no affinity to his mother's party and had no
intention of living with his dysfunctional family at home. In was no
secret that there was no love lost between Sheikh Hasina and husband
Wazed Miah.
During his mother's tenure as Bangladesh's Prime Minister [1996-2001],
Joy reportedly got engaged with an old girlfriend from his school
days. She was an Indian girl of Sikh religion. Hasina, taking cover of
an official visit, went to London to formalize the marriage. Along
with some close friends and relations, she even took along cooks of
Dhaka's famous Fakhruddin bawarchi. Her one condition was that the
girl convert to Islam. The girl refused. Hasina was more than upset.
She reportedly cancelled all programs on that day. She shut herself up
in her hotel room the whole day, refusing to talk to any one. She
immediately returned to Dhaka. The marriage reception never took
place, and her entourage, cooks and all, returned home.
Late Joy got married to American citizen Kristine Ann Overmire. They
were married in the US on October 26, 2002. Kristine reportedly was
previously married to Richard D Loomis. Although the couple had a
child, Christine, who has a dignified family back ground in United
States receintly left Joy for his rowdy life style. It is learnt that,
during the ongoing electoral campaign, Hasina tried to get Joy and his
former wife in Bangladesh to participate in the election campaign,
but, Christine reportedly refused to be in Bangladesh as she already
has cut relations with Hasina's son.
When Awami League came to power and his mother became ruler of the
country, Joy got involved in business. There was the Texas-based
Infolink International [from November 1998 to March 2001] and Nova BD
International, LLC [May 1998 to August 2000]. He had links with the
SEAMEWE-4 undersea cable project through Nova BD International. He was
also involved with Tyco Communications [USA] along with a certain
Mahboob Rahman.
He also founded two other companies, Wazed Consulting and Sim Global
Services in March 2005. This was after Awami League was out of power.
Interestingly, the annual sales of these two companies were only
61,000 dollars and 35,000 dollars respectively. Yet Joy, in his own
name, bought a brand new house at 3817 Bell Manor Court, Falls Church,
Virginia, on May 12, 2006, worth about one million dollars. His wife
is not a co-owner of the house. He used a fixed-rate mortgage and paid
only about 200 thousand dollars [20 percent of the value] in cash.
This was a clever move as it hid the real value of the property in
terms of cash.
Earlier, together with his wife, he brought another property at 4823
Martin Street, Alexandria, VA 22312. The property is worth 749,000 US
dollars.
Like Joy, his brother-in-law Khandkar M Hossain, husband of sister
Saima Wazed Hossain [Putul], started a few businesses in the US when
his mother-in-law Sheikh Hasina came to power, but dissolved them
after a couple of years. These businesses included Bangladesh Metals
and Pipes Trading Corporation; Shonali Inc; Doug's Wholesale Inc;
Afsana Inc; and Jampy Corporation.
Apparently business was not quite the cup of tea for either of them.
However, despite none of the businesses seeming to make any money and
most of them being shut down before long, no one has ever heard of
them suffering from financial difficulties. Perhaps mother's affection
helped them in this regard.
Criminal court clerk records identify the following criminal charges
and arrests of Sajib Wazed Joy:
On June 14 1998, Joy was arrested in Tarrant County, Texas. He was
charged on two counts of carrying an unlicensed handgun and one count
of driving while intoxicated. He was convicted for drunken driving and
was imprisoned for 120 days, sentenced to 24 months of probation and
fined $500.
On February 6, 2000, Joy was charged with reckless driving and having
a radar detector in Hanover County, Virginia. He was fined and
incarcerated for one day.
On March 19, 2000, he was arrested and charged with reckless driving
in Fairfax County, Virginia. He was found guilty and given a suspended
30-day jail sentence and 12 months probation along with a $400 fine.
On April 29, 2001, Joy was charged with speeding in Rappahannock
County, Virginia.
On May 20, 2004, Joy was charged with speeding in Arlington County,
Virginia.
Property of Hasina's daughter:
Saima Wazed Hossain [Putul], Sheikh Hasina's daughter and Joy's
younger sister, along with husband Khandakar Mahbub Hossain, own
considerable property in the US. The houses they purchased there include:
456 North Bay Point Way, Jacksonville, Florida. This is a single
family residence purchased by Saima and husband Hossain on November 1,
2005 for US$ 245,000 from Merrill and Priscilla King.
845 York Way, Maitland, Florida. This is also a single family
residence purchased by Saima and Hossain on October 16, 2004, for US$
311,000 from David and Elizabeth Cocchiarella. The property has an
assessed value of US$ 208,844.
2065 W 119th Avenue, Miramar, Florida. This single family residence
was purchased by Saima and Hossain on October 28, 1998 for US$154,300
from Pulte Home Corporation. On March 15, 2005, a non-purchase money
loan of US$197,000, was obtained from SunTrust Bank secured with this
property. The property has an assessed value of US$265,440.
It is a big question to all that when Bangladeshi authorities are
continuing their withch hunt to find hiddne assets of Khaleda Zia, why
they are completely silent on the issue of illegal wealth of Sjib
Wajed Joy, Saima Wajed Putul or Sheikh Rehana. It is even rumored that
a certain section of bureaucracy in Bangladesh are over enthusiastic
in throwing black balls on Bangladesh Nationalist Party, especially
before the upcoming general election, with the goal of seeing this
party defeated in the poll.
http://www.weeklyblitz.net/index.php?id=222
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