‘It’s about plain robbery’: Bangladesh leader on the Tulip Siddiq scandal
Muhammad Yunus calls for an investigation into homes given to the anti-corruption minister and her family by allies of her aunt’s deposed regime
Key points
Muhammad Yunus, Nobel peace prize winner and head of government, says Tulip Siddiq’s north London homes must form a part of a corruption inquiry
Siddiq lived in a home bought by an offshore company
The British Virgin Islands entity was owned by wealthy Bangladeshi businessmen and named in Panama Papers
Yunus rebukes a “corrupt” ally of the Siddiq family who gave £250,000 to the King’s charity
Britain’s National Crime Agency visited Dhaka last year and will help asset freezes if asked
The leader of Bangladesh has called on Britain’s anti-corruption minister to apologise for using properties given to her and her family by the autocratic regime of his predecessor.
Muhammad Yunus has said the London properties used by Tulip Siddiq should be investigated and returned if she is found to have benefited from “plain robbery”.
Yunus, an economist and Nobel Peace Prize winner who has led the interim government of Bangladesh since last year, said the London homes connected to Siddiq — who, as economic secretary to the Treasury and City minister is responsible for tackling financial crime — should be investigated as part of a continuing inquiry into fraud and embezzlement.
His intervention came as a Sunday Times investigation found Siddiq spent years living in a Hampstead property bought by an offshore company named in the Panama Papers and connected to two Bangladeshi businessmen. She has previously spoken out against the use of such trusts to avoid transparency.
Siddiq is the niece of Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of the country’s founding father and its prime minister until her removal in an uprising last year. Hasina resigned after a massacre in which police responded to student protests by killing hundreds of people.
Since then, she has been accused of “crimes against humanity”, enforced disappearances and corruption, and is among those said to have benefited from a nuclear energy deal she brokered with Russia. Siddiq, the MP for Hampstead & Highgate, denies benefiting from the deal, which is being examined by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), or any other allegedly corrupt venture.
She and her family have also been given or used five London properties bought by members or associates of Hasina’s party, the Awami League. These are not under formal investigation.
During an interview on Thursday at the Jamuna State Guest House, his official residence in the capital, Dhaka, Yunus said it was an “irony” that Siddiq had been accused of corruption.
“She becomes the minister for anti-corruption and defends herself [over the London properties],” he said. “Maybe you didn’t realise it, but now you realise it. You say: ‘Sorry, I didn’t know it [at] that time, I seek forgiveness from the people that I did this and I resign.’ She’s not saying that. She’s defending herself.”
He acknowledged, however, that it was not for him to say she should step down.
Yunus referred to a recent official report that found the elite had taken billions of pounds a year out of Bangladesh, with some funds used to buy assets including property. “They pointed out how money is stolen, but it’s not stealing — when you steal, you hide it. It’s a robbery,” he said. Asked whether that could apply to properties used by members of Hasina’s family in London, the former academic said: “Absolutely, it’s about plain robbery. Nothing else.
“If a UK parliament member is involved, definitely it’s a big issue … we got used to [the previous regime] taking away everything, so we feel relieved that you’re bringing this [issue] to the attention of the world.”
Yunus, 84, whose formal title is chief adviser of the interim government and who has pledged to stand down once elections are called this or next year, said corruption had contaminated Bangladesh. With 170 million residents, it is the world’s eighth most populous country, as well as one of the most unequal.
On the scale of corruption, he added: “The word ‘contaminated’ is a very soft word. [The country is] totally destroyed. It’s not contaminated. [Hasina’s regime] had no intention of retaining any semblance of … what honesty is, what transparency is. They had no qualm about destroying it all. So that’s what we inherited.” Transparency International ranks the country 149th in its annual corruption perception index, beneath Nigeria, Liberia and Russia.
Asked whether Siddiq’s properties should be investigated by the ACC, Yunus said “absolutely”. He added that the commission should look at the “whole thing”.
He also said that, if feasible, the properties bought by Awami League allies should be returned. “That’s the intention of the interim government. How to bring them back. Because it’s about people’s money. And when I say people it’s not about the billion-dollar people you talk about, [it’s] common people,” he said.
The premier joked about the “generous” philanthropy of Shayan Rahman, the son of a billionaire who is under investigation for money-laundering, and who has given £250,000 to one of the king’s charities.
Yunus also welcomed the support of overseas law enforcement agencies in establishing the facts. The NCA, Britain’s FBI equivalent, sent officers to Dhaka last October and is prepared to freeze UK assets, including property, if asked.
The comments are his first on the scandal engulfing Siddiq, 42, and will add to the pressure on her to resign. She referred herself to the prime minister’s adviser on ethics last week, saying: “I am clear that I have done nothing wrong.” Since then Sir Keir Starmer has backed Siddiq, his friend and constituency neighbour, and said he would await the outcome of his adviser’s inquiry. However, there are suggestions No 10 is already looking for a replacement.
Her position was put under further strain on Wednesday when Dhaka’s Financial Intelligence Unit ordered banks in the country to produce transaction details of all accounts linked to her.
New details of Siddiq’s living arrangements are likely to further complicate her position.
Property trail
It can today be revealed that an offshore company linked to two Bangladeshi businessmen bought a property in Hampstead that Siddiq lived in for years.
In 2000, Pedrok Ventures, an offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands, bought the flat for £243,000. Documents leaked as part of the Panama Papers and made available by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) demonstrate that Pedrok Ventures was funded through a six-figure loan, later written off, by a second offshore company: Harberton SA.
That entity had two shareholders: Nasim and Masood Ali, two brothers from Bangladesh. They jointly own a company, Shamolima Limited, registered in Dhaka in 1983, which provides logistics and manpower to foreign oil companies operating in the country. It has described itself as “one of the leading” businesses in Bangladesh with “vast experience” and noted “the close and complete co-operation from personnel of different government corporations” in its projects as a “tremendous help”. Its clients have included Chevron, Shell and Chinese state-owned companies. The men have a sister business specialising in liquefied natural gas and solar energy whose websites say it has “worked with” the Bangladesh army.
Nasim, 70, moved to the UK in 1970, married an artist and sent his children to a private school in north London. He returns to Bangladesh only occasionally. His brother lives in the US, according to documents filed at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. Alongside their business partner, Shahid Inam Chowdhury, they are linked not only to Pedrok and Harberton SA but to several other trusts in the British Virgin Islands, one called Shamolima.
In January 2005, the Ali brothers asked for Harberton SA to be dissolved. Less than 24 hours later, the Hampstead flat was transferred as a gift to Moin Ghani, a Bangladeshi barrister then in his mid-twenties who later represented Hasina’s government. He has been pictured with her and once described it as a “personal honour” to be asked by her to serve on an international panel. According to a source in Dhaka, Ghani’s parents were close to Siddiq’s mother and once owned a restaurant frequented by Awami League officials. Neither the Ali brothers nor Ghani responded to requests for comment.
In March 2009, Ghani gave the flat to Siddiq’s sister, Azmina, who was 18 and did not work for a living. Nasim Ali had had no apparent connection to the flat for years but served as Siddiq’s witness in the transaction. His signature on Land Registry documents is the same as those in the Panama Papers.
Tulip Siddiq spent several years living there, listing it as her address in 2012 and 2014. Her husband, Christian Percy, gave the flat as his residence in 2016, the year after Siddiq became an MP. Azmina later sold it for £650,000.
At their two offices in Dhaka, staff said they could not divulge the directors’ whereabouts or put them on the phone. A source later said the directors were not familiar with “this matter”. There was a similar response at the nearby legal chambers of Moin Ghani, who, according to staff, has been in London since last year. Nobody answered the door at Nasim Ali’s home in Cricklewood, northwest London.
Siddiq, whose ministerial responsibilities include “countering economic crime, money laundering and illicit finance”, has already said questions about the property held in her sister’s name should be directed to her. Her sister declined to comment.
Labour has routinely called for action on the use of offshore companies. In April 2016, after the Panama Papers were published, Rachel Reeves, who is now the chancellor, criticised the Tory government for attempting to “water down” transparency rules. In the same debate, Wes Streeting, now health secretary, said the Conservatives could rebuild public trust by ensuring that “Crown dependencies and overseas territories” published information about beneficial ownership.
Shortly after being made shadow economic secretary to the Treasury in 2022, Siddiq herself said that, while trusts could be legitimate, “because trusts separate legal and beneficial ownership, they can be exploited to disguise foreign or illicit ownership of assets”. She continued: “That is why it is so important that the information on the beneficial ownership of trusts is made publicly available.”
Royal links
Also among those to have provided properties to the Siddiq family is Shayan Rahman, 42, the son of Salman Rahman, 73, a billionaire former adviser to Hasina. He used an offshore trust to buy a £1.2 million property in Golders Green, north London, used by Sheikh Rehana, Siddiq’s mother. Since the uprising last year, the Rahmans have had their bank accounts frozen and been placed under investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department, the intelligence wing of Bangladesh police.
They are accused of laundering more than $80 million out of Bangladesh via Dubai. While Shayan Rahman’s father is in custody, having tried to escape the country by boat, his own whereabouts are unknown. He owns assets in Dubai, Singapore and London, and used a private jet that featured in an artwork he commissioned for his £27 million Mayfair mansion.
Rahman is thought to have donated more than £250,000 to the British Asian Trust, an anti-poverty charity founded by Prince Charles before he became King, with whom he has been pictured.
Rahman, who also owns two other properties in Grosvenor Square collectively worth £42 million, helped to launch the charity’s operations in Bangladesh in 2018 and chairs one of its advisory councils.
The move prompted Charles to publicly heap praise on him at a gala dinner at Buckingham Palace that year: “I can only say that I am enormously grateful to Shayan Rahman … for the support he is providing.”
Yunus joked about Rahman: “Generous person, see? How generous … We are mentioning Shayan by name now but there are many Shayans going to cocktail parties right now who’ve not been named yet. When you have free money you can do anything you want, you want to go close to somebody, throwing money, you’ve got a ticket right here, you sit next to the person that you want to look for.”
A spokesman for the British Asian Trust said: “We are aware of allegations against Shayan F Rahman and will continue to monitor developments in Bangladesh.” A source said the money was accepted in good faith and spent on projects in Asia.
In the interview, Yunus said his officials aimed to recover cash and assets held overseas but originating from funds in Bangladesh. Referring to a recent official report concluding that $16 billion was laundered out of the country every year, he said: “Whose money is this? My [taxpayers’] money. They’re buying houses there. You see only an insignificant amount of that in these flats, there are so many things all around the world. Their homes. Their bank accounts throughout the world, particularly in the Caribbean. God knows how many other ways they have done that.”
He vowed: “Where they live, wherever they have palaces, whole complexes of properties bought, you see in many capitals, not far from us, the countries very close to us. Then UK, we’ll try and find them. And then go further further, Caribbeans, USA, Canada.”
The National Crime Agency (NCA), Britain’s equivalent of the FBI, has indicated its willingness to help Bangladesh recover certain assets. NCA officials visited Dhaka in October to meet their counterparts. A source said the agency could seek asset freezes on properties in the UK if asked to do so. Yunus said he hoped for the continued co-operation of law enforcement in every country involved, including the UK. “Respective governments should look into it, whatever the reasons are,” he said.
Asked specifically what should happen to the properties used or owned by the Siddiq family, Yunus said: “Our whole idea and movement and what our pledges, commitments, that we made [is that] we’ll bring them to justice. We need documentation. It has to be more hard documents that usually is needed … See, [it’s] very easy for any lawyer to say it’s politically motivated … so we have to be very careful so that they’re not dismissed as politically motivated. Hard facts. When you do it in one flat, in the UK, that becomes such a great example, because nobody says it’s politically motivated any more.”
The work of the anti-corruption inquiry is one of several commissions set up by Yunus, with others focused on the constitution, elections and economic reform. They are due to report over the coming months, after which he has suggested elections will be held by late this year or the middle of next year.
Turmoil in Bangladesh
Yunus’s installation last year as chief adviser was the latest chapter in Bangladesh’s often turbulent modern history, which began with the war for independence from Pakistan in 1971 and has been marked by the assassination of political leaders, the incarceration or exile of the incumbent government’s enemies, and dozens of military coups with varying degrees of success.
The country’s founding president, and the man regarded as father of the nation, was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He led the fledgling state but presided over economic chaos and human rights abuses until August 1975, when he was assassinated in his own home as part of a military coup. His wife, brother, two daughters-in-law and several other relatives were also killed.
Two children survived: Hasina and her sister Rehana, Siddiq’s mother, who were visiting West Germany at the time.
Thereafter the country’s politics became dominated by two political parties and the dynastic families behind them: the Awami League, founded by Mujibur and led by Hasina, and the Bangladesh National Party, founded by Ziaur Rahman, the first directly elected president, and now led by his widow, Khaleda Zia.
Few saw the increasingly authoritarian administration of Hasina collapsing as promptly as it did last year. But what started as a student-led movement opposed to job quotas for certain families in the country’s civil service became a popular revolt against the regime following a brutal crackdown by police.
Yunus was asked by the leader of the student movement to serve as the country’s interim leader and in August accepted the role of chief adviser — the fifth person to have assumed the role. His appointment would have been inconceivable days earlier: Hasina was still pursuing him on a variety of allegedly politically motivated charges, which had drawn criticism as recently as 2023 from allies including Barack Obama.
He has largely restored law and order while adopting a novel approach to governing, with students helping run government departments. But critics say religious minorities including Hindus have not been adequately protected since he assumed power. There is also concern about political retribution against the Awami League, growing fissures in the student movement and a lack of clarity about when elections will be held.
Some would like polls in August, coinciding with the anniversary of last year’s uprising, and last year Tarique Rahman, chairman of the Bangladesh National Party, said the greater the delay, the more difficult it would be to move beyond Hasina’s legacy. Questions also hover over the economy, which had been celebrated as one of the fastest-growing in the world, but whose GDP experts fear that Hasina may have overstated.
Challenged on the date of elections, Yunus said: “All kinds of approaches will be tried to come to a consensus.” He hardened the language he has used to date, saying of elections by mid-2026: “Anything has to happen by the middle of then. The earliest is end of this year. It’s all set … once the election is done, the new incumbent will take over. We’re not running for a position in the election … I hope we can do a good job and have for the first time in the nation’s history a clean election.”
The work of the ACC has turned an uncomfortable spotlight not only on Hasina’s family in Bangladesh but also those outside, such as her sister, Rehana, and niece, Tulip Siddiq. Rehana was so intimately involved in Awami politics from afar that she helped negotiate her sister’s escape to India after the regime was toppled. She has never sought to distance herself from the party. Siddiq’s position is more complicated.
In 2008, when a Labour councillor, she described herself as a former spokeswoman for the Awami League and a member of Hasina’s overseas lobbying unit. After Hasina was elected the following year, Siddiq described herself as “ecstatic”, and represented her aunt’s government on the BBC World during a paramilitary mutiny months later. She told the anchor: “I did speak to my aunt an hour ago, and I spoke to her about the situation, she said the mutiny is absolutely under control, it’s over.” Speaking on behalf of the administration, she said: “We will be launching a full investigation into this.
Siddiq speaking on BBC World Service the military mutiny against her aunt. Below, with President Putin and Sheikh Hasina in Moscow in 2013
In 2013, she accompanied her aunt to the Kremlin, where she posed for photos with Vladimir Putin shortly after Bangladesh and Russia signed the nuclear power agreement, which remains under investigation by the ACC. And in 2015, when running to become MP for Kilburn & West Hampstead, she received the help of UK Awami League campaigners, later saying that she would not have been elected without them.
When confronted with criticism about Hasina, however, Siddiq has sought to distance herself from the regime. She said she was not part of the official delegation to Russia, only travelling there to see her aunt, and was not aware of the details of the Awami League’s support for her.
In 2017, when asked to raise the case of a “disappeared” British-educated barrister abducted by her aunt’s regime, she appeared to suggest Channel 4 news was being racist. She told its producer: “I am not Bangladeshi”, before making a threatening comment about her pregnancy. She later referred the broadcaster to police, making a complaint of racially aggravated assault. The incident apparently related to an allegation that one of their journalists had made her uncomfortable and stepped on her foot.
Siddiq later claimed she did not speak to her aunt about politics, only family matters.
Throughout much of the period in which she sought to distance herself from her aunt’s administration, Siddiq lived in properties given to her or her family by the Awami League. The Financial Times reported that she owns a flat in King’s Cross, north London, bought for £195,000 in 2001 and given to her by Abdul Motalif, an associate of her aunt’s, a few years later. She had previously said it was given to her by her parents, a false statement she has now corrected.
The Sunday Times reported last week that she lived in the £650,000 Hampstead flat given to her sister, which it now transpires was owned by the trust linked to Bangladeshi businessmen. She continues to live in a £2.1 million house given to her by Abdul Karim Nazim, a member of the UK branch of the Awami League.
Others have claimed that the Awami League was responsible for her political career in the first instance.
Nasim Ali — who shares a name with but is no relation to the man mentioned above — the former mayor of Camden and the first Bangladeshi to hold such a post, visited Bangladesh in 2023 and appeared on local television.
Speaking in Sylheti, he described how Siddiq became a councillor in 2010, saying: “I have a close relationship with Sheikh Rehana.” In relation to Rehana and another Awami league politician, he said: “They together told me to help Tulip Siddiq. No one knows Tulip Siddiq in Camden. I said, ‘Let it be’.”
Referring to Bangladeshis living in east London, he continued: “I said, ‘Do not bring Tower Hamlets people here, I have control over here, Tulip Siddiq will win, we will win’. We made Tulip councillor. Tulip had no experience.”
He continued: “A couple of councillors told me everyone got surprised, and they said, ‘You took her into the cabinet, and she got no experience’. I said, ‘No, she got something. Tulip has something.’ Maybe she is inexperienced, but she is very knowledgeable. Tulip’s grandfather was a great leader.”
Ali claimed: “Tulip said herself — I don’t need to say. [A] few Awami League leaders were jealous of me. I never said that I made Tulip Siddiq. Tulip said it is because of ‘Nash’ [Ali’s nickname].”
He added: “Tulip said herself that she wouldn’t be [an] MP without me.”
In Dhaka, in government headquarters, Mahfuz Alam, a student activist described by chief adviser Yunus as the “brains” behind last year’s revolution, expressed similar views.
He described Siddiq as part of Sheikh Hasina’s “family enterprise” and said giving property to members of the family overseas was “a co-ordinated process which was being [conducted] for 15 years”. Of the former regime, he said: “They were plundering money and [assisting] the people who will vouch for her and her politics.”
He added: “It’s the system of making oligarchs … it was that nexus, the Sheikh [Hasina] family, not only Sheikh Rehana or Hasina, the sheikh’s family around Bangladesh … and again oligarchs who were looting the public money from many banks.”
Yunus offered a similar view, but struck a note of optimism about the path ahead — and the ability to openly scrutinise his predecessors. He said: “We regained our voice. Our voice was taken away, muzzled. Totally shut. Muzzled means probably still some sound comes out. No sound at all. [The] only sound is from one side. So for the first time, not only are [we] free, our voices [are] open. You can say anything you want, nobody is going to stop [you] … that is our greatest accomplishment. We are free to talk.”
Siddiq continues to defend herself in the face of mounting criticism. She says she is the victim of trumped-up allegations and has not yet been contacted by the ACC.