Hillary Clinton’s aides threatened me with tax audit: Sajeeb Wazed Joy

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy has told 'The Daily Caller' that US State Department aides, under then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, threatened him with a tax audit if Bangladesh did not call off an investigation into Muhammad Yunus.

Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy at a programme titled ‘Call for National Unity on the Spirit of the Liberation War’ at Hotel Sonargaon in Dhaka on Friday. Photo: asif mahmud ove Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy at a programme titled ‘Call for National Unity on the Spirit of the Liberation War’ at Hotel Sonargaon in Dhaka on Friday. Photo: asif mahmud ove

“They threatened me with the possibility of an audit by the Internal Revenue Service,” Joy told the pro-Republican conservative news outlet.

“I have been here legally for 17 years and never had a problem. But they said, ‘well, you know, you might get audited.'”

Between 2010 and 2012 US State Department officials had repeatedly tried to pressure his mother into dropping the investigation against the Grameen Bank, said Joy.

Joy said he previously had friends in the state department,

Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy at a programme titled ‘Call for National Unity on the Spirit of the Liberation War’ at Hotel Sonargaon in Dhaka on Friday. Photo: asif mahmud ove

“They would say over and over again, ‘Yunus has powerful friends’ and we all knew they were talking of Secretary Clinton. Everybody knew it was Mrs Clinton.”

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has previously claimed Clinton and her department had exerted pressure on her son to stop the investigation.

"Even my son Joy had been called to the State Department thrice. He was told, 'You'll face problems. Hillary won't take it lightly. Please wise up your mother'," she told a programme in Munich in February.

Former Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni had also claimed Yunus had influenced the World Bank decision to pull out of the Padma Bridge project over allegations of corruption.

“Professor Yunus obviously tried to punish or tried to retaliate and punish the government of Bangladesh, especially [Prime Minister] Sheikh Hasina,” she said.

“He knew how important the Padma [bridge] was for our economy, for our people’s government, and it would revive the whole of south of Bangladesh.”

Yunus is a close friend of the Clintons and a major donor to the Clinton Foundation.

The Daily Caller contacted Grameen America and the Clinton Foundation for comment on the story, but has yet to receive a response.

The article does not have a comment from the US State Department.