Bangladesh’s Summit Group Chairman Muhammed Aziz Khan has been named one of the richest people in Singapore.

He is the 41st, among the 50 richest individuals in Singapore. He was in the 42nd position in 2023.

The magazine said Bangladeshi born Muhammed Aziz Khan, 68, is a permanent resident of Singapore. For this reason, he had to give up his Bangladeshi citizenship. Summit Group is one of the top private sector business conglomerates of Bangladesh. The group has business in power, ports, fibre optics, real estate and liquefied natural gas sectors.   

French billionaire Bernard Arnault has once again secured the top spot on Forbes' World's Billionaires list for the second consecutive year with an estimated fortune of $233 billion and Tesla founder Elon Musk secured 2nd position with $195 billion. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos secured 3rd position with $194 billion, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg placed 4^th position with $177 billion, Microsoft’s Bill Gates secured 7th position with $128 billion, and Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett placed 6th position with $133 billion.

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani is among the top 10 in the list with $116 billion while Gautam Adani placed in 17th position with $84 billion. The United States has the highest number of billionaires in the list. The country has a total of 813 billionaires in the Forbes list. 

Forbes said the Chinese are the most in the list of the top rich after the Americans. The number of billionaires in China including Hong Kong is 473. India ranks third in the list of countries based on the number of billionaires. It is a new record for India.  Forbes has been using stock prices and currency exchange rates since March 8 this year to compile the list of top billionaires. The position of the richest in this list of Forbes changes every moment by calculating the rise and fall of the wealth of billionaires. 

Aziz's name came to the fore in the Panama Papers money laundering scandal in 2016. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had started an investigation in this regard, but it has not been able to complete yet due to government influence and legal complicities.

Summit Group’s corruption in Bangladesh

Aziz Khan siphoned off almost all the money to Singapore earned through corruption and embezzlement in various sectors including the power sector in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) recently revealed such information. Only two months ago, BTRC decided that Summit Communications could transfer its shares without any fee. It, later, withdrew from that decision. It has been alleged that Summit Communications was transferring and selling shares in the name of issuing new shares. 

Launched in 2009, Summit Communications has become one of the largest companies in the telecom and internet sector in the country. In March, it sought BTRC's approval to issue new shares worth Tk 170.5 crore to two separate companies based in Abu Dhabi and Mauritius. According to the application, a total of 14.20 crore new shares will be issued at the rate of Tk 12 each. A month later, it decided to send a letter to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications for its pre-approval. Government approval came in the following month. On June 12 this year, BTRC allowed Summit Communications to transfer shares without any charge of 5.5 per cent. Both Summit Communications and BTRC said that 5.55 per cent fee not for new share issue. However, BTRC higher officials said they wanted to charge the fee as the company actually transferring and selling shares.

Summit Communications Chairman Muhammed Farid Khan is the presidium member of the Awami League and younger brother of Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Muhammad Faruk Khan. Farid is a bosom friend of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. As a result, summit was getting special benefits, said the officials.

Summit had also submitted the share sale agreements with companies to BTRC. According to an agreement, Abu Dhabi based Global Energy names Adiba Aziz Khan as a shareholder of the company. Adiba Aziz Khan is the daughter of Muhammed Aziz Khan. Aziz Khan is the elder brother of Muhammed Farid Khan. Global Energy was issued 9.44 crore shares worth Tk 113.38 crore out of new shares. On the other hand, Mauritius based Sequoia Infra Tech was issued 4.4 crore shares worth Tk 48.59 crore.

After the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government on August 5, by the Anti-discrimination Student Movement, BTRC wrote to the law firm again and said that their legal opinion was only advisory and not binding. Then on August 15, BTRC sent a letter to Summit Communication stating that the decision not to pay their share transfer fee has changed. Later on August 15, BTRC sent a letter to Summit Communications stating that the decision not to pay their share transfer fee has been changed. After the latter, Summit Communications has already submitted Tk 10.24 crore to BTRC.  

Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), said attempting to steal this money and later pay it off is a small example of Summit Group's abuse of power. This payment should not be covered by the misuse of the power of the Summit and other financial irregularities. This recovery is an example of how the government can use its powers judiciously to protect the country from the financial irregularities of the past, he added. Source: Khaborer Kagoj.

bd-pratidin/GR