TDS Desk:

A new documentary released on September 10 by the UK’s Financial Times, titled “Bangladesh’s Missing Billions, Stolen in Plain Sight”, spotlights an estimated $234 billion allegedly siphoned out of Bangladesh during Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure as prime minister.

The documentary features protesters from the July uprising that toppled Hasina’s government, as well as experts. The central questions: how was such an enormous amount spirited out of the country, and is there any realistic path to bringing it back?

The documentary opens by placing Hasina’s dramatic fall from power in context, featuring student leaders Rafia Rehnuma Hridi and Rezwan Ahmed Rifad, along with FT’s South Asia bureau chief John Reed, commodities correspondent Susannah Savage, Spotlight on Corruption deputy director Helen Taylor, and Westminster lobby reporter Rafe Uddin.

The film scrutinises the alleged role of Hasina’s family in foreign property holdings and offshore assets, saying that much of the laundered money ended up in London. The channels, according to the FT, included over- and under-invoicing, informal money transfers, and overseas property deals.

The documentary also raises questions about individuals linked to Bangladesh’s former political and business elite. Among them is Tulip Siddiq, a British MP and Hasina’s niece, who has been accused of links to high-value overseas property. Siddiq denies any wrongdoing, dismissing the claims as “politically motivated.”

Experts interviewed in the documentary stress that recovering the looted billions will be a long and difficult process.

The film closes with a poignant statement from student movement coordinator Rafia Rehnuma Hridi. “Our greatest fear is that we may not be able to fulfill the promises we made to our martyrs,” she says.