In a major legal development, the Nicosia district court in Cyprus has issued an order freezing a two-story residence in Parekklisia belonging to the prominent Bangladeshi businessman Mohammed Saiful Alam and his wife.
This judicial action, finalised on 19 May, was prompted by an application from Cyprus’s anti-money laundering unit, Mokas.
The unit acted upon a request for mutual legal assistance submitted by authorities in Bangladesh, who are currently engaged in a massive criminal investigation into allegations of bank fraud and money laundering, reports Cyprus Mail.
Alam, the founder and chairman of S Alam Group, maintains his innocence and denies all accusations of wrongdoing.
The seizure of the residence is part of a broader probe by Bangladeshi investigators who are examining a network of companies and financial transactions spanning from 2009 to 2024.
The core of the investigation involves serious claims regarding fraudulent lending practices, the unlawful accumulation of assets, and large-scale money laundering.
In a development occurring just one day after the Cypriot freezing order, a court in Bangladesh sentenced Alam, along with ten of his relatives and business associates, to five months of imprisonment.
This specific penalty was related to a loan equivalent to approximately €6 million provided by Islami Bank to a subsidiary of the S Alam Group.
Media reports indicate that this particular financing was officially intended for the purchase of 134 buses, yet investigators discovered that the vehicles were never actually acquired. However, the scope of the investigation is far more extensive than this single case.
According to the request transmitted to Cyprus, authorities are investigating allegations that companies linked to Alam secured substantial loans from several financial institutions, including Islami Bank Bangladesh and First Security Islami Bank.
The request states that many of these loans eventually went into default.
Investigators are now tracing whether the funds obtained through these credit facilities were illegally transferred abroad using a network of companies and financial structures operating across multiple international jurisdictions.
The scale of the alleged financial misconduct is immense, with the governor of Bangladesh’s central bank publicly stating that the case involves more than €8 billion reportedly transferred out of the country.
Authorities believe that assets connected to this investigation may be located in Cyprus, Singapore, and other regions. A specific point of interest is ACLARE International, a Cyprus-registered company that Alam acquired in 2016 following the purchase of ACLARE Investment Ltd.
Officials are attempting to determine if this entity was utilized in transactions linked to the movement of the contested funds.
Court filings mention a broader network of companies and trusts situated in Jersey and the British Virgin Islands, as well as Cyprus. Investigators are seeking to determine the ownership structures and financial activities connected to these offshore entities.
In his defense, Alam is represented by the international law firm Quinn Emanuel, through which he has asserted that his investments were funded by legitimate foreign sources and that the legal actions against him are unjustified.
Alam has also initiated proceedings with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), arguing that the measures affecting his assets violate international investment protection agreements.
Finally, it is noted that Alam obtained his Cypriot citizenship in 2016 through the nation’s “golden passports scheme.”
Although the Cyprus government has since terminated this program, Alam’s name did not appear in the findings of the Nikolatos Committee report, which investigated the operation of the citizenship-by-investment scheme.
