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S Alam says he can sue Bangladesh

S Alam Group owner Mohammed Saiful Alam has claimed an international investment pact and his status as a Singaporean citizen offer protection against a “campaign of intimidation” being waged by the country’s central banker against his conglomerate, according to a report by Financial Times.
In a letter sent in by lawyers on their behalf, Saiful Alam, founder and chair of industrial group S Alam, and members of his family warned central bank governor Ahsan H Mansur that they could seek to begin international arbitration procedures against Bangladesh.
FT said the letter from law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan follows Mansur’s allegations in an interview with the Financial Times that Saiful Alam and associates “siphoned off” at least Tk1.2tn ($10bn) from Bangladeshi banks under the regime of ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, it added.
The letter, a copy of which was seen by the FT, accused Mansur of making “inflammatory and unsubstantiated public comments” amounting to a “campaign of intimidation against a business group” that it said employs about 200,000 people directly and indirectly in Bangladesh.
The letter and Saiful Alam’s threat to pursue international arbitration mark his most serious pushback yet against Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, which took power after a student-led protest movement toppled Sheikh Hasina.
In an interview with the Financial Times last month, Mansur — who was appointed Bangladesh Bank governor after Hasina fled the country in August — said S Alam and his associates had “siphoned off” at least $10 billion “as a minimum” from the banking system after taking control of banks with the help of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI).
Mansur alleged Saiful Alam, his associates and other groups used methods such as loans to the banks’ new shareholders and inflated import invoices to carry out the “biggest, highest robbing of banks by any international standards”.
S Alam group, which has interests in sectors including food, construction, garments, and banking, rejected Mansur’s allegations last month, saying in a statement through Quinn Emanuel that there was “no truth” to them.

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