Saiful Alam tycoon sues Dhaka over asset freeze
Mohammed Saiful Alam filed an international arbitration claim against Bangladesh’s interim government, asserting that asset-recovery efforts cost his family’s business hundreds of millions of dollars. The S Alam Group founder submitted the request on Monday to the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes through Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan attorneys.
The family claims Muhammad Yunus’s administration conducted arbitrary asset seizures and orchestrated a damaging media campaign after taking power last year. Central bank governor Ahsan Mansur accuses the S Alam family of diverting $12 billion from the banking system through forced bank takeovers and inflated import invoices at six controlled institutions.
The family obtained Singapore citizenship between 2021 and 2023 after renouncing Bangladeshi nationality in 2020. Their lawyers argue that protection under a 2004 bilateral investment treaty between Bangladesh and Singapore gives them foreign investor rights.
Bangladesh’s government estimates $234 billion left the country under former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule. The S Alam family denies wrongdoing and claims that authorities produced no evidence to support the allegations.
