This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 8, 2026 - June 14, 2026
ON May 19, the Nicosia district court issued a freezing order against a two-storey residential property in Parekklisia, Cyprus, owned by Bangladeshi businessman Mohammed Saiful Alam and his wife Farzana Parveen. The order followed an application by Cyprus’ anti-money laundering unit, Mokas, acting under mutual legal assistance procedures initiated by Bangladesh.
The investigation, which Bangladesh’s central bank governor has publicly described as involving more than €8 billion (RM37 billion) allegedly transferred out of the country, centres on allegations that companies linked to Alam secured substantial loans from major Bangladeshi financial institutions — including Islami Bank Bangladesh and First Security Islami Bank — many of which subsequently defaulted. Investigators are examining whether the proceeds were channelled abroad through a web of companies and trusts registered in Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands and Jersey.
Part of the probe also involves ACLARE International, a Cyprus-registered company that Alam acquired in 2016 through the purchase of ACLARE Investment Ltd. Alam had obtained Cypriot citizenship that same year through the “golden passport” citizenship-by-investment scheme, which has since been terminated by the Cypriot government.
According to documents submitted to Cypriot authorities, Bangladeshi investigators are examining financial transactions and business activities linked to Alam and associated entities spanning 2009 to 2024. Alam, whose international legal team is led by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, denies any wrongdoing and maintains that his investments were financed through legitimate foreign sources.
The day after the Cyprus freezing order, a court in Bangladesh dealt Alam another blow. On May 21, Judge Md Helal Uddin of the Chattogram Money Loan Court-1 sentenced Alam and 10 relatives and associates — including his wife, sons and brothers — to five months’ civil imprisonment for failing to repay a Tk84.49 crore (about €6 million) loan from Islami Bank Bangladesh’s Khatunganj branch. The loan had been disbursed for the purported purchase of 134 buses by group subsidiary OG Travels Ltd.
It marked the first time a Bangladeshi court had formally sentenced the tycoon since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in August 2024, under whose patronage S Alam Group allegedly accumulated enormous financial clout. Alam and his family have not been seen publicly since Sheikh Hasina’s ouster and are believed to be living in Singapore.
S$1 bil Singapore empire under the microscope
Singapore, where Alam obtained citizenship in 2023, has emerged as the central hub of his offshore holdings. Bangladeshi investigators allege that he built a business empire worth at least S$1 billion (RM3.13 billion) in the city state, acquiring hotels, homes, retail properties, and corporate stakes without obtaining permission from Bangladesh Bank to transfer or invest funds abroad.
Previous news reports have identified several acquisitions linked to Alam between 2014 and 2019. These include the 328-room Hotel Grand Chancellor for US$177 million, retail space in Little India for US$100.53 million, and the Ibis Novena in 2019 for US$125.6 million.
Meanwhile, in July 2025, a Dhaka court ordered the freezing of 40 bank accounts held by Alam, six accounts belonging to his wife, and shares in eight Singapore-registered companies. Additional accounts linked to his sons, Ashraful and Ahsanul Alam, brother-in-law Ahmed Belal and sister Maimuna Khanam were also frozen. Investments totalling about S$6.8 million in two Singapore companies jointly owned by the couple were blocked.
Singapore’s Financial Intelligence Unit has formally written to its Bangladeshi counterpart, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, requesting detailed disclosures on the local and foreign assets of S Alam Group — a signal that Singaporean regulators are taking the matter seriously. The Bangladesh Criminal Investigation Department separately alleges that Alam laundered as much as S$12.89 billion abroad, including through a Singapore-based entity called Canali Logistics, which later became the vehicle through which he acquired real estate assets in Malaysia.
Alam’s Singapore lawyers, Wong Partnership, have described the Bangladeshi proceedings as politically motivated, arguing that the asset freezes were carried out in an “unlawful, arbitrary and discriminatory fashion” and have materially harmed legitimate business operations.
Coordinated response in the works
The sequence of events — a court conviction in Chittagong, a property freeze in Nicosia, and mounting pressure in Singapore — reflects the increasingly coordinated international response to what Bangladeshi authorities have described as one of the most extensive cases of financial crime in the country’s history.
In December 2025, Bangladesh’s National Coordination Committee on money laundering prevention revealed it had seized assets worth Tk66,146 crore (about S$683 million) from 10 major business groups, including S Alam Group, in connection with alleged laundering under the Sheikh Hasina administration.
India Today reported that a White Paper commissioned by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus found that as much as US$234 billion (RM942 billion) may have been illegally siphoned out of Bangladesh during Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure.
Alam and his family have reportedly applied twice to formally renounce their Bangladeshi citizenship. Last November, Bangladesh’s High Court suspended acceptance of the first renunciation application. In February this year, a fresh application was filed but subsequently blocked by a stay order, leaving the Alam family in legal limbo. Officials worry that allowing the family members to renounce their citizenship could hinder efforts to recover allegedly laundered funds, seize domestic assets, and defend Bangladesh’s position in ongoing international arbitration proceedings.
For the man who once commanded at least five Bangladeshi banks, an industrial conglomerate and a gleaming hotel empire stretching from KL to the Mediterranean, the world is growing considerably smaller.
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