With the help of her son Sajib Wazed Joy and niece and British MP Tulip Siddique, the new Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina embezzled more than 5 billion dollars from the Rooppur nuclear power plant project.
This information was reported in a report published by Global Defense Corp on Saturday (August 17).
Recently, the Global Defense Corporation has published a report based on its own research on this matter. The portal named Global Defense Corp was launched in 2018. They investigate corruption in military and defense sector of different countries.
According to the report, Rosatrom, the agency implementing the Rooppur project, allowed Sheikh Hasina to embezzle this money through a bank in Malaysia, which was mediated by Joy and Tulip.
According to the report, the biggest and most expensive project in Bangladesh is Rooppur nuclear power plant.
It is also said that the cost of construction of the power plant with the help of Russia is 1 thousand 265 million dollars. Which is much more than needed. Through a bank in Malaysia, Sheikh Hasina was given the opportunity to embezzle 5 billion dollars from this budget, the project implementing agency Rosatrom.
The then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made this agreement with Russia through the mediation of her niece (Sheikh Rehana’s daughter) Tulip Siddique. Tulip, Sheikh Rehana and some family members received 30 percent of the money smuggled in exchange for this mediation.
Tulip Siddique was the companion of Sheikh Hasina during her meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013. According to Global Defense Corp, he also mediated the Dhaka-Moscow billion dollar arms deal at that time.
Tulip Siddique, her mother Sheikh Rehana and uncle Tariq Ahmed Siddique, the then Prime Minister’s Defense Advisor, launched a fake company named ‘Prachhaya Limited’ in 2009. They also have a company called Jumana Investments in the United States.
Global Defense Corp says that Sheikh Hasina used to launder money to offshore accounts of different countries through this company. Their company is associated with a cheating fund company called Destiny Group and has smuggled about 900 million dollars to various countries including the United Kingdom.
The country’s first nuclear power plant is being built at Rooppur in Pabna with the help of Russia. The cost of its construction is estimated at 12.65 billion dollars. When it is built, 2,400 megawatts of electricity will be available from its two units.
90% of the project is financed by Russian loans. The government is providing 10 percent. The project is using third generation nuclear reactor of VVER technology. Each of which has a production capacity of 1200 MW. The first unit is scheduled to be completed this year and the second unit in 2025.
On September 28 last year, the first shipment of fresh nuclear fuel or uranium from the first unit of the power plant arrived in the country. Later, Russia handed it over to Bangladesh through formalities.
Meanwhile, after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, the Russian ambassador to Bangladesh, Alexander Mantitsky, said that the implementation of the Rooppur nuclear power project may be delayed. He said this after a courtesy meeting with Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Tauhid Hossain last Thursday morning.
The Russian ambassador said, ‘There may be some delay in the implementation of Rooppur nuclear power project. But it is not difficult.’