Bangladesh Bank’s financial intelligence unit Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) has found traces of Tk 99 crore of four institutions associated with S Alam Group Chairman Saiful Alam’s Personal Secretary (PS) Akiz Uddin. Banks have been instructed to block these accounts. As a result, the opportunity to withdraw money from these accounts has stopped.
At the same time, under the direction of BFIU, the bank accounts of Akiz Uddin’s wife and children and the bank accounts of their owned businesses have also been asked to be suspended.
Apart from S Alam’s personal secretary, Akiz Uddin was the Deputy Managing Director of Islami Bank. The bank declared him undesirable after the change of government. His resignation was approved by the bank’s reconstituted board of directors on Tuesday.
It is known that since Saiful Alam settled in Singapore, Akiz Uddin used to manage the banks of the group on his behalf for seven years. He controlled all the recruitment, purchase, promotion and disbursement of loans in these banks. He is accused of influencing various state institutions including Bangladesh Bank through various channels besides taking loans anonymously on behalf of the group. He also introduced himself as the alternate chairman of the group. He was also seen in Bangladesh Bank Governor’s Room and Governor’s Residence.
Akiz Uddin is a resident of Patia under the same police station as S Alam. He passed SSC in 1997 and got admission in Patia Government College. From there he joined First Security Islami Bank after passing HSC and graduation. After a few days, he got a job as the personal secretary of Saiful Alam, the chairman of the bank. He was promoted as AVP of Fast Security Islami Bank in 2021. He joined Islami Bank as DMD in April 2023. Managing directors of top two banks said that no one has been promoted as DMD as fast as him in the banking sector.
Meanwhile, the BFIU’s letter sent to the bank and financial institutions said that the related clauses of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations will be applicable in the case of this instruction to suspend the transaction. In the letter given by the organization, the names of Akiz Uddin and his family members, national identity card information has been given.
Banks and financial institutions have been asked to send the relevant information or documents (account opening form, KYC and transaction statement) to them within five working days from the date of the letter in case of suspension of an account, it said.