Bangladesh orders banks to assist UK minister graft probe

DHAKA: Bangladesh money laundering investigators have ordered the country´s big banks to hand over details of transactions relating to British anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq in an ongoing graft probe, officers told AFP.

Siddiq is the niece of former Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled abroad last August after a student-led uprising against her iron-fisted tenure.

Last month the national anti-corruption commission launched a probe into the alleged embezzlement by Hasina´s family of $5 billion connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant. Two officials from the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Bangladeshi banks had been instructed to furnish any financial records relating to Siddiq.

A BFIU document issued on Tuesday and seen by AFP showed that banks had also been told to provide transaction records for Hasina, her son and daughter, Siddiq´s two siblings and her mother Sheikh Rehana.