Former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury has built a property empire worth at least $675 million, with plush properties in the UK, the US and the UAE, according to the latest documentary of Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit. The investigation found Chowdhury, a close ally of the now deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, bought over 360 luxury properties in the UK worth $250 million, 54 properties in Dubai worth $190 million, nine properties in the US worth $20 million, said Zulkarnain Saer Khan, the lead investigator of the documentary titled 'The Minister's Millions'. However, Ripon Mahmood, managing director and chief executive officer of the London-based real estate agency Moving City that handled Chowdhury's property purchases in the UK and the UAE, told Al Jazeera's journalists that the Awami League politician's real estate empire is worth $675 million.
In the 25-minute video from Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit -- which in 2021 produced the documentary 'All the Prime Minister's Men' on the corruption by former army chief Aziz Ahmed and his family -- Chowdhury can be seen telling the undercover reporters that he also has properties in Singapore and Malaysia. "My father was very close to the Prime Minister (Sheikh Hasina), actually, and I am also..
. She is my boss..
. She knows I have a business here (in Britain)," Chowdhury told the undercover reporters who posed as property investors from China. Chowdhury is the eldest son of Akhtaruzzaman Chowdhury Babu, the former pres.