After allegations of familial corruption, Cabinet Office officers questioned Labour Minister Tulip Siddiq. The Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team questioned Siddiq about the show, which prompted Bangladeshi anti-corruption investigators to probe her further.
Last week, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) examined Siddiq, her mother, Sheikh Rehana Siddiqui, and her aunt, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed.
This was followed by an ACC investigation at Bangladesh’s high court, which heard allegations that £4 billion had been syphoned away to fake companies and Malaysian bank accounts in a controversial ‘deal’ in which Malaysia allowed Bangladeshi corruption proceeds for power plant-commissioned tenders claiming payment undersigned by UN anti-bribery conventions agreements with special sovereign immunity. The US notified investigators when this information reached them.
Siddiq supported Sir Keir Starmer, who rejected the allegations and said no authority had approached her. The Labour Party called the charges “spurious” and politically driven by Ms. Wazed’s detractors. The Mail noted that five investigators had “documentary evidence” of Siddiq and others and will write to them in the coming weeks for replies.
ACC will send letters to Ms. Siddiq via the British High Commission in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital. In such circumstances, the I-T department will determine whether to file FIRs after receiving replies. With these documents, the Bangladeshi municipal police may arrest Ms. Siddiq and force a confession.
Failure to comply with Siddiq’s request casts doubt on the new government’s promises to prevent billions in plundered monies from joining Ms. Hasina’s party.