TDS Desk:

Summit Group founder Muhammed Aziz Khan allegedly smuggled millions of dollars out of Bangladesh under the patronage of his brother Awami League presidium member Muhammad Faruk Khan over the last 15 years.

Aziz Khan has become Singapore’s 41st richest man with wealth worth $1.12 billion amassed from different businesses spread from Bangladesh to Singapore, according to US-based Forbes magazine’s billionaire list.

According to media investigations, former State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid supported Dhaka-based Summit Group in grabbing public funds without any competition.

Bangladesh Bank has so far approved 24 ventures of 20 institutions to invest a total of $69.5 million abroad. Of the amount, $45.45 million has been legally invested after informing the central bank. No one other than these ventures is allowed to invest abroad.

Neither Summit Group nor Aziz Khan had any investment in these 20 institutions while the oligarchs laundered money illegally from Bangladesh.

The syndicate of former principal secretaries Ahmed Kaikaus and Abul Kalam Azad persuaded former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to promote Summit Group, sources at the Energy Division said.

Summit Group is better known as a family business of former Aviation Minister Faruk Khan, a close aide of Awami League top brass. Summit Power, owned by Aziz Khan, received Tk106.23 billion or around 12% of the total capacity charge (Tk1.08 trillion) paid by the government in the last 15 years.

The conglomerate showed others the way of setting up privately owned independent power plants for the purpose of grabbing public funds by abusing the ‘Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provision) Act, 2010’. Summit is the main beneficiary of government patronage given to private power producers under this law.

The company has an investment of about $20 billion in Bangladesh, the highest from the country’s private sector. Summit Group’s revenues from power plants along with capacity charges and the benefits it enjoyed due to the uncompetitive procurement processes in the energy and telecommunication sectors helped it go global.

Regarding the malpractices of Summit Group, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the high-level corruption spreads deep into the country due to a lack of good governance in public entities.

“If any company like Summit laundered money to Singapore, there is a framework to bring the fund back to the country. However, it will take time. Earlier, a case took seven years to be disposed of. We can do this through empowering NBR (National Board of Revenue), Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) as well as the Attorney General’s Office. The interim government is capable enough to make this happen,” he said.

Summit Group is reportedly responsible for the ongoing gas crisis across the country as it got a licence for setting up a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal without any competition and apparently completed the work without ensuring the best quality. Recently, the LNG terminal was damaged during Cyclone Remal.

The process of supplying imported gas to the national grid is to be delayed further as fresh repair works on the LNG terminal are needed.

Sector insiders said LNG now meets only 21% of the demand for gas in the country, leading to a repeated increase in its price.

Official data reveals that around 35% of electricity generation in Bangladesh now depends on imported fuel oil. The last government prioritised fuel oil and LNG imports over using the country’s own gas reserves during the last 15 years.

The Awami League government took a lavish telecom project to take broadband internet to the union level to boost the digital economy. Two companies, including Summit, got the work orders to develop an optical fibre network across the country.

The project involving Tk19.14 billion, including Tk12.27 billion Chinese loans, aimed to connect 26,000 government offices and 1,000 police stations with broadband connectivity by expanding an optical fibre network across 2,600 unions, according to sources. Since the closing of the project in 2023, its outcome has not been satisfactory, according to sector insiders.

“As Summit Group was close to the Awami League leadership, nobody could speak against them,” said a leader of a tech trade body, wishing not to be named.

In 2016, Aziz Khan’s name appeared in the Panama Papers which exposed corruption related to money laundering.

Just two months ago, BTRC decided that Summit Communications could transfer its shares without any fee. However, the company suddenly withdrew from that decision after fall of the Awami League government.

It has been alleged that Summit Communications was transferring and selling shares under the guise of issuing new shares.

After its debut in 2009, Summit Communications has become one of the largest companies in the telecom and internet sectors. The company sought BTRC’s approval to issue new shares worth Tk1.7 billion to two separate companies based in Abu Dhabi and Mauritius by the end of March.

A total of 14.20 crore new shares would be issued at the rate of Tk12 each. After one month, the telecom regulator sent a letter to the ministry concerned for pre-approval. The government approval came the following month. Then on 12 June this year, the BTRC allowed the company to transfer shares without any charges.

Before ministerial approval, the BTRC sought legal opinions from a law firm, which said since Summit is only issuing new shares, the rule of paying 5.5% fee on the total sale prices of shares will not be applicable for Summit Communications.

In this case, Summit also mentioned that the fee is not applicable as the company is raising its capital by issuing new shares. However, senior officials of BTRC say the legal and licensing department of BTRC wanted to impose the charges on the company from the beginning. Because, Summit was actually transferring and selling shares under the guise of issuing new ones.

Summit Communications Chairman Muhammad Farid Khan is the younger brother of Aziz Khan and Faruk Khan.

Farid is also a close friend of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son and ex-ICT adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy, giving it special benefits.

Share sale agreements with Summit companies are also submitted to BTRC. It can be seen that Adiba Aziz Khan, the daughter of Aziz Khan, is one of the shareholders of the agreement to give the new shares of Summit to the Abu Dhabi-based company Global Energy. This company was issued 9.44 crore shares worth Tk113.38 crore out of new shares. On the other hand, another 4.4 crore shares worth Tk48.59 crore were given to Mauritius-based Sequoia Infra Tech.

In this situation, when the Sheikh Hasina government collapsed in the face of a mass upsurge on 5 August, the BTRC again wrote to the law firm and said their legal opinion was only advisory and not binding. Then on 15 August, the BTRC sent a letter to Summit Communication saying that the decision not to pay their share transfer fee was changed.

“Summit Communications has already deposited Tk102.4 million to the regulatory body in view of the BTRC letter,” said an official of Summit Communications.

Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) froze bank accounts of 11 members of Aziz Khan’s family on 7 October. The bank accounts of Aziz Khan, Mohammad Faisal Karim Khan, Anjuman Aziz Khan, Ayesha Aziz Khan, Adeeba Aziz Khan, Azeeza Aziz Khan, Zafar Uddin Khan, Mohammad Latif Khan, Farid Khan, Salman Khan and Faruk Khan have been seized.

Former Minister Faruk Khan was arrested from his house in the Cantonment area of Dhaka on the night of 15 October.

Retired Army officer Faruk Khan allegedly contributed as a collaborator of the anti-liberation forces during the 1971 war. Later, he managed the Awami League ticket in exchange for huge money. Over the years, the family became an influential factor in the policy-making of the Awami League.

Faruk Khan was ‘elected’ MP for six consecutive terms and while completely controlling his Gopalganj constituency since 2008. He tortured people of dissent with the police and members of his terrorist forces.