S Alam warns of international legal action against Bangladesh's interim government

• Saiful threatens to pursue international arbitration if the matter is not resolved within six months.
• His legal team alleges that investments have been destroyed due to the government's actions and omissions.

Mohammed Saiful Alam, the founding chairman and managing director of Bangladesh’s S Alam Group, has initiated legal action as a Singaporean citizen to seek compensation for alleged financial losses. Saiful claims his investments were severely impacted by the Bangladesh interim government’s actions, including asset freezes and other restrictions, following the removal of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, as reported by The Financial Times on Monday.

The legal case, pursued by Saiful and his family, could undermine the interim government’s efforts to recover billions of dollars allegedly siphoned abroad during the previous Awami League regime. In a formal dispute notice sent to interim leader Dr. Muhammad Yunus and key advisers, Saiful’s legal team warned that if the matter is not resolved within six months, they will escalate the issue to international arbitration.

The claim is based on a 2004 bilateral investment treaty between Bangladesh and Singapore, where the Alam family now resides. According to the notice, the family acquired permanent residency in Singapore in 2011 and citizenship between 2021 and 2023, renouncing their Bangladeshi nationality in 2020.

The letter, prepared by law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and obtained by the Financial Times, alleges that the Bangladesh government violated international investment treaties. It claims the authorities in Dhaka froze the family’s bank accounts, imposed travel bans, stripped them of control over their companies, and subjected them to investigations for alleged money laundering, all without formal notification.

Additionally, the letter asserts that banks owned by the S Alam Group were prohibited from issuing loans, their management teams were replaced, and business contracts were arbitrarily canceled. "The value of the investors’ investments has been destroyed, in whole or in part, through the acts and omissions of Bangladesh, its agencies, and instrumentalities," the letter states. "These ongoing acts have violated and continue to violate the investors’ rights under [investment treaties] and the laws of Bangladesh, leading to the present dispute."

The government has yet to respond to the Financial Times’ request for comment. Dr. Ahsan H Mansur, who became the central bank governor after Hasina’s ousting in August, claimed in October that Saiful, his associates, and other groups had embezzled funds from the banking system by taking control of leading banks with the help of a powerful military intelligence agency. He accused these groups of financial fraud through fraudulent loans and inflated import invoices, calling it "the biggest, highest robbing of banks by any international standards." 

The S Alam Group, which operates in sectors such as food, construction, garments, and banking, has denied these allegations, stating that there is "no truth" to Mansur’s claims. A spokesperson for Bangladesh Bank stated that the issues are under investigation but declined to comment further to maintain the integrity of the process.