► Became reckless under the pressure of the ministry of brother Farooq Khan
► Owns 1.12 billion dollars in Singapore with the country’s money
Brother is an influential minister. Apart from this, Awami League is also a member of the party’s top forum presidium. It can be said that the position is at the peak of power. The additional debt is the love and blessings of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
What else do you want? Aziz Khan, the brother of Aviation and Tourism Minister Farooq Khan, who lost power in the mass coup, used it from the very ‘top’ of state power. Over the past 15 years, he has only risen to the top using this shield of power. By providing thousands of crores of work, government purchases, goods and services to various government departments, they have left everyone behind and become richer and richer. Muhammad Aziz Khan, the owner of private business firm Summit Group, is now not only known as the richest man in Bangladesh; Rather, he is now one of the richest men in Singapore.
Named in the country’s top 41st richest list. According to the data, he earned money with both hands in the country, and became rich by smuggling it to Singapore. To say, billionaire Aziz Khan has smuggled almost the entire money out of the country. Bangladesh Bank, other sources and data have been reviewed.
Awami League government has fallen in a special situation. After losing power in an unprecedented student coup, the beneficiaries of that government are almost cornered. Summit Group is one of them. It is known that this group, which is very close to the government, is known as the undeclared ‘mother and father’ of the country’s electricity and energy sector. They hold a significant share of electricity.
Control of LNG is also in the hands of this group. Major Stakeholder Summit Group of IT, Telecom Sector. Apart from these, this group dominated the government’s big purchases. Aziz Khan’s Summit Group has built a mountain of money through this.
Aziz Khan, the owner of the group, became increasingly reckless with his elder brother, former Aviation and Tourism Minister Farooq Khan, in front. According to the world-renowned magazine Forbes, Aziz Khan is the 41st richest man in Singapore with a net worth of $1.12 billion. However, the central bank has no information that he has taken this money from Bangladesh in any legal way. Rather, Bangladesh Bank has approved 24 ventures of 20 institutions of the country to invest a total of 69.5 million or about 70 million dollars abroad.
In this regard, an official of Bangladesh Bank, without revealing his name, said, ‘Out of this money, 45.45 million dollars or four and a half million dollars have been legally invested in the Central Bank. No one else is allowed to invest more than this amount. But there is no name of Aziz Khan or Summit Group among these 20 institutions. In other words, all the money that Aziz Khan took abroad from Bangladesh is illegal. In the language of the law, that is called money laundering.
Aziz Khan is not only Singapore’s richest man; According to the audit and statistics published in 2024 by the US-based business magazine Forbes, Muhammad Aziz Khan is also among the richest people in the world. Aziz Khan is number 2,545 in the list of 2,781 people from 78 countries made by the magazine. Whose net worth is shown at 1.12 billion dollars. Energy sector has been mentioned as an income sector.
According to Forbes, 68-year-old Aziz Khan is of Bangladeshi origin but has become a permanent resident of Singapore. Left the citizenship of Bangladesh. Aziz Khan is the 41st richest man in Singapore. Last year (2023) he was number 42 in the country’s top rich list. He has taken a step forward this year.
Aziz Khan’s name came to the fore in the Panama Papers 2016 money laundering scandal. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) started an investigation in this regard. It is known that the investigation is not over due to the influence of power and legal complications.
Summit Group Corruption in Bangladesh:
The corruption information of Summit Group has recently come out from the office of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). Just two months ago, BTRC decided that Summit Communications could transfer its shares without any fee. However, the company suddenly withdrew from that decision. 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 became one of the largest companies in the telecom and internet sector. The company has sought BTRC’s approval to issue new shares worth Tk 1.705 crore to two separate companies based in Abu Dhabi and Mauritius by the end of March. According to the application, a total of 14.20 crore new shares will be issued at Tk 12 each. A month later it was decided to send a letter to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications for its pre-approval. Government approval came in the following month. Then on June 12 this year, BTRC allowed the company to transfer shares without any charge.
BTRC sought legal opinion before sending it for government approval. Where it was opined that no charge would be applicable for summit communications. But senior BTRC officials say Summit was actually transferring and selling shares under the guise of issuing new shares. As a result, the summit is subject to charges as per BTRC’s legal and licensing conditions.
After investigation, it is known that Chairman of Summit Communication Muhammad Farid Khan is the younger brother of Awami League presidium member and former Aviation and Tourism Minister Farooq Khan. Farid is also a close friend of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajib Wazed Joy. As a result, the BTRC officials alleged that special privileges were given to the summit.
Summit also submitted the share sale agreements with the companies to BTRC. It can be seen that Adiba Aziz Khan, the daughter of Farid’s elder brother Summit Group chairman Muhammad Aziz Khan, is one of the shareholders of Summit’s new stake agreement with Global Energy, an Abu Dhabi-based company. The company was issued 9.44 crore shares worth Tk. 113 crore 38 lakh out of new shares. On the other hand, another 4.4 crore shares worth Tk. 48.59 crore were given to Mauritius-based Sequoia Infra Tech.
In this situation, when the Hasina government collapsed in the face of the anti-discrimination student movement on August 5, BTRC wrote to the law firm again and said that their legal opinion is only advisory; Not mandatory. Then on August 15, BTRC sent a letter to Summit Communication saying that the decision not to pay their share transfer fee has changed.
An official of Summit Communications told the media, “Summit Communications has already deposited Tk. 10 crore 24 lakh to the regulatory body in view of the letter given by BTRC.”
In this regard, contact was made with Aziz Khan, the owner of Summit, and several officials of the group’s public relations department. Called them but got no response.
Executive Director of Transparency International (TIB). Iftekharuzzaman said, “Trying to steal this money from Summit Communications and later paying it, is an example of abuse of power by the Summit Group.” As a result, financial irregularities should not be covered under the cover of abuse of power of the summit by keeping this payment in front.
Meanwhile, in the changed context, the financial intelligence agency Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) seized the bank accounts of 11 members of the family including Summit Group Chairman Aziz Khan on October 7. According to information, bank accounts of Mohammad Aziz Khan, Mohammad Faisal Karim Khan, Anjuman Aziz Khan, Ayesha Aziz Khan, Adiba Aziz Khan, Aziza Aziz Khan, Zafar Uddin Khan, Mohammad Latif Khan, Mohammad Farid Khan, Salman Khan and Mohammad Farooq Khan have been seized. has been
Sources say that former minister Farooq Khan, who is known as the power house of Aziz Khan, has also been arrested by the law enforcement agencies. Farooq Khan, whose fortunes have changed in many ways, became the Awami League leader by buying the nomination in exchange of crores of Taka in the 1996 elections. Gradually became the backbone of Awami League. He was elected Member of Parliament for six consecutive times.
