The government has frozen the bank accounts of Eastern Bank PLC’s (EBL) chairman Shawkat Ali Chowdhury and his family members, according to a letter issued by the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of the Bangladesh Bank (BB).
The BFIU in its letter ordered all the banks and financial institutions to stop all type of transactions in their accounts. The credit cards owned by them will also remain suspended.
Shawkat’s family members who came under this BFIU directives include his wife Tasmia Ambreen, vice chairman of National Life Insurance Company Ltd., and daughters Zara Namreen and Zaran Ali Chowdhury. Zara Namreen is a director of EBL.

BFIU letter also directed the banks and financial institutions to suspend transactions in the bank accounts of business enterprises (including limited companies) they are involved in for 30 days. It also ordered them to send all the documents related to the accounts, such as account opening forms, TP and KYC, to the BFIU.
A BFIU official said the accounts the persons were frozen as part of an investigation into alleged financial crimes following the appropriate legal process.
The Ant-Corruption Commission (ACC) is also investigating into the allegation of possessing illegal wealth by Shawkat.
According to information available from ACC, Shawkat, a businessman from Chattogram, was the partner of a company named CdNet Communications, where the other owners were Chowdhury Nafiz Sharafat, an influential person of the ousted Awami League regime, and former information minister Mohammad Ali Arafat. The company was formed on April 4, 2022, with Nafiz Sharafat holding 80 percent of the shares and Arafat holding the remaining 20 percent shares. The shares of the company were redistributed on March 24, 2024 and Shawkat was handed over 30 percent of the shares from Nafiz Sharafat’s holding. Things have changed soon after that as the company was received huge amount of loans from EBL without anymortgage when Shawkat was the chairman of the bank. Sources said EBL managing director Ali Reza Iftekhar and Nafiz Sharafat were close to each other as they once worked together for the Standard Chartered Bank.
According to information available from ACC, Shawkat and his wife Tasmia Namreen were also involved in the 2010 share market scam and their names were included in the probe report prepared by Khadaker Ibrahim Khalid-led committee. The probe body found suspicious transactions in the BO accounts of Shawkat and his wife. Shares worth Tk 1,368 crore were traded in the BO account of Tasmia Ambreen from January 1 to December 31 in 2010. The probe report was later shelved following pressure from influential quarters in the government.
ACC sources said Shawkat also used and Nafiz Sharafat’s influence to buy shares of the National Tea Company Ltd. during the Awami League regime. The shares were bought in the names of Shawkat’s son Zaran Ali Chowdhury and daughter Suva Samreen at a very low price against the interest of three state-owned companies that owned the National Tea Company.
ACC sources also said the EBL disbursed huge amount of loans to a company named A&B Outwear located in the Chattogram EPZ. The company used the loan to import a Mercedes Benz car (CTG-Metro Gha 11-2783) without paying any duty. Shawkat and his son Zaran used the car. The A&B Outwear was sold to another person after it became a loan defaulter. But the imported assets, including the car, were not handed over to the owner of the new company. Later the car was seized under a joint initiative of district administration, customs authorities and BEPZA. A&B Outwear’s owner Nazmul Abedin is now absconding. But no case was filed against him by the EBL.
The ACC has recently initiated investigations into the allegations of money laundering by former Bangladesh high commissioner to UK Sayeda Muna Tasnim and his husband Touhidul Islam Chowdhury, chairman of the Generation Next Fashion Ltd. The EBL disbursed huge amount of loans to the company and the money were smuggled out of the country through 15 fake companies.
Shawkat is also an influential figure in the ship-breaking industry in Chattogram. Almost the entire ship-breaking business was being run on unauthorized loans disbursed at 3-4 percent interest rate by Shawkat Ali. The size of the loans is anow around Tk 20,000 crore. Many businessmen involved in ship-breaking have become bankrupt after falling into the debt-trap of Shawkat Ali, sources said.
Journalist Zulkarnayen Saer disclosed information about possessing assets in Dubai, Singapore and UK by Shawkat through smuggling out huge amount of money. He is used to stay at the Al Masali Building in the Shore Line Apartment Complex at 9 Pam Jumeira when he visits Dubai. He has a Ghost Model Rolls Royce car there, which a Bangladeshi driver used drive. The driver was sacked recently for disclosing the secret information.
Shawkat also has a house named ‘Sherin House’ at Warwick Lane in London. He also bought apartments at the Ocean Drive Road in Singapore. He sold out one of the apartments on May 2, 2025.