The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has sent Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) information on illegal assets, bank accounts and business records held in the United States by former Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and his wife, Rukhmila Zaman. The assistance was sought from U.S. authorities through a Mutual Legal Assistance Request (MLAR).
The ACC confirmed the development in a press release issued Monday (Sept. 7) from its head office. The same release announced major action against several individuals on charges of corruption and money laundering, including former principal secretary Dr. Ahmed Kaikaus, former lawmaker Aliuddin Ahmed Chowdhury Nasim, and Nasa Group Chairman Nazrul Islam Mazumder.
According to the release, signed by ACC public relations deputy director Md. Aktarul Islam, mutual legal assistance was requested from the U.S. Central Authority’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) to seize and confiscate proceeds of crime held in the United States by former Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and his wife, Rukhmila Zaman. In response to that request, the FBI has already sent its investigative report and related records to the ACC.
The release also said the commission has recommended that the allegations of abuse of power, corruption and illegal asset accumulation against Dr. Ahmed Kaikaus, former principal secretary and former secretary of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, be investigated jointly with the ongoing inquiry into “irregularities and corruption in the power purchase agreement between Adani Power Limited and the Government of Bangladesh.”
The ACC is also examining allegations that Aliuddin Ahmed Chowdhury Nasim, former lawmaker for the Feni-1 constituency, abused his power to seize land, trade in jobs and party positions, and smuggle thousands of crores of taka in illegally acquired wealth abroad. The commission has recommended investigating the allegation of assets disproportionate to known income, held in the names of Nasim and his family members, jointly with a case already under investigation at the ACC’s Noakhali integrated district office.
Separately, the ACC has decided to launch a fresh inquiry into allegations of major irregularities and wastage of public funds in the procurement of walkie-talkies by Dhaka North City Corporation. Investigating and supervising officers have already been appointed for the inquiry. The release alleges that a local company with no prior relevant experience was awarded the walkie-talkie procurement contract, using the certification of a Chinese company, and that government employees wasted large sums of public money by buying walkie-talkies at several times the price paid by other government agencies, for personal gain. The ACC head office had already conducted a special enforcement operation over this irregularity on Aug. 17, 2025.
Citing another major success in curbing money laundering, the release said all proceedings on a mutual legal assistance request sent to the Isle of Man against Nasa Group Chairman Nazrul Islam Mazumder, Nasreen Islam and One Property Limited have been successfully completed. The Isle of Man authorities have confirmed to the commission that they have fully executed the ACC’s request and frozen all assets in the territory belonging to the individuals named in the allegations.