The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has approved three new cases against former Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, his wife Rukhmila Zaman, and 27 others for allegedly embezzling BDT 141.20 crore from the Jubilee Road branch of Islami Bank Bangladesh through fraudulent means across 27 deals, and subsequently laundering the funds to the UAE, UK, and USA.
The commission sanctioned the filing of these cases from its headquarters on Monday (August 25). The cases are expected to be formally lodged with the ACC’s regional office in Chattogram shortly.
Initially, a seven-member task force comprising officials from the ACC, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) launched an investigation into the allegations surrounding Saifuzzaman. Later, starting September 9, 2025, a nine-member team led by ACC Deputy Director Md. Mashiur Rahman took charge of the probe. To date, the investigation team has initiated 30 cases related to these financial irregularities.
Earlier in July 2025, the graft watchdog filed six cases against Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and his associates on charges of embezzling BDT 129 crore using shell companies. These included fraudulent loans under the names of Eminent Traders (BDT 20 crore), Vision Trading (BDT 25 crore), Reliable Trading (BDT 15 crore), Progressive Trading (BDT 23 crore), Crescent Traders (BDT 25 crore), and Model Trading (BDT 21 crore).
The accused in those cases included Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, his wife Rukhmila Zaman (former chairman of United Commercial Bank), alongside their company employees and nearly 50 officials and staff from United Commercial Bank (UCB).
Furthermore, in September 2025, five more cases were filed against the couple involving the taking of bribes to embezzle a total of BDT 213.75 crore from various bank clients. The affected amounts included BDT 52 crore from Thermex Knit Yarn Ltd (UCB Principal Branch), BDT 55 crore from HM Ship Breaking Industries (Agrabad Branch), BDT 5 crore from Well Mart Ltd (Jubilee Road Branch), BDT 41.75 crore from Saif Powertec and E-Engineering PLC (Mohakhali Branch), and BDT 60 crore from IconX Service Ltd (UCBL Foreign Exchange Branch).
Additionally, in December 2025, the ACC filed 19 more cases in three separate phases—four cases over the embezzlement of BDT 31.69 crore from the Chawkbazar, Port, Pahartali, and Bahaddarhat branches; eight cases over BDT 56.15 crore; and seven cases concerning BDT 46.73 crore.
