Bangladesh ex-minister's 1m found in UK bank

Dhaka: British authorities have detected £1 million (Dh5.6 million) stashed by an influential former minister of ex-premier Khalida Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government at a leading UK bank, reports and officials said on Monday.

The Daily Star newspaper said as part of a money laundering probe, British investigators detected a joint account of former energy minister Khandeker Mosharraf Hossain and his wife Bilquis Aktar with Lloyds TSB Bank, while the minister had earlier in his wealth statement claimed to have only £250,000 in the account.

"There are reasonable grounds to suspect that Khandeker [Mosharraf] Hossain and Bilquis Hossain have conspired to launder proceeds of criminal activities, and that substantial amount of money are involved," The Star quoted the British investigation report as saying.

Officials of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which has been spearheading an anti-graft campaign against the high-profile suspects, confirmed the report saying the amount was beyond the known or declared sources of income of the person.

The ex-minister, who was detained for over a year, face trial under the ACC campaign and is out on bail ahead of the December 29 general elections, claimed the amount found was part of his earnings while he studied in Britain in late 1960s and early 1970s but the investigations found the account was opened in 2003, while he was a minister of the BNP government.

Hossain, a former university professor, in his earlier statement to the ACC said he has wealth worth over 22.8 million takas (Dh1.23 million) at home while the wealth of his wife, a housewife, was worth over 60.5 million takas as he stands accused of several cases on graft and tax evasion.

The Star report, quoting a source familiar with the British investigation process, said the investigators believed the assets they have traced represent proceeds of crime and were laundered by Mosharraf and Bilquis.