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Published : 28 Nov 2025, 02:50 PM
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has filed a case accusing former Padma Bank chairman Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat, members of his family, and an associate of laundering more than Tk 16.13 billion.
The case was lodged at Gulshan Police Station on Thursday under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, the CID said in a statement.
The other accused are Sarafat’s wife Anjuman Ara Shahid, his son Rahib Safwan Sarafat Chowdhury, and associate Dr Hasan Taher Imam.
CID investigators say Sarafat and Imam obtained a licence in 2008 to run an asset-management firm, Race Management PCL, which later secured responsibility for managing several closed-end mutual funds. The agency alleges the funds were used for “illegal personal interests”.
According to the CID, fund money was invested to buy shares of then Farmers Bank, later renamed Padma Bank, allowing the accused to secure board positions. Sarafat is also alleged to have facilitated his wife’s appointment as a director of Southeast Bank.
The CID claims that fund assets were further misappropriated after the accused used fund money to buy a brokerage house, Multi Securities, operated through its trading licence.
Sarafat is also alleged to have used Padma Bank funds to buy or invest in a vehicle named Strategic Equity, held in the names of individuals linked to him.
The CID says it analysed documents and accounts associated with the accused and found the use of multiple beneficiary owners’ (BO) accounts, forged documents and the acquisition of RAJUK plots under different names, which it alleges were used to funnel assets abroad.
The Financial Crime Unit said it identified 78 bank accounts linked to Sarafat, his family members and their businesses. These recorded deposits of Tk 18.09 billion and withdrawals of Tk 18.05 billion, according to the CID.
Twenty-one of those accounts, registered in the names of Sarafat, his wife and son, now hold just Tk 2.92 million, though the CID says “significant” transactions took place through them.
Investigators also say they found evidence of overseas assets, including two properties in Canada, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, a company in Singapore with 15 joint bank accounts, and 76 bank accounts abroad held in the name of Sarafat’s son.
Sarafat also owns a three-room flat and five-room villa in Dubai, according to investigators.
The agency claims it has also identified substantial assets held in Bangladesh.
The CID says its preliminary investigation found that over Tk 16.13 billion had been obtained through “fraud and forgery” and laundered through domestic and overseas channels, prompting the filing of the case.
The allegations emerged after reports circulated on social media and in the press about pressure to invest Tk 5 billion in a Best Holdings bond and about suspected foreign property purchases, prompting the CID’s Financial Crime Unit to begin its probe.
