Wife, daughter of Gen Tarique denied Malta passport on corruption fears: FT

The wife and the daughter of General Tarique Siddique, former defence adviser to ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, were denied access to Maltese citizenship scheme due to being accused of "money laundering, corruption, fraud and bribery" in Bangladeshi media reports.

Tarique's wife Shaheen Siddique, who is also the aunt of UK anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq, was turned away in 2013 by Henley & Partners, which then had exclusive rights to administer Malta's citizenship-by-investment programme, reports UK daily Financial Times (FT).

Later in 2015, Shaheen applied for a joint application with her London-based daughter Bushra Siddique, who is the first cousin of Tulip, the UK's city minister holding responsibility for tackling illicit finance. But they have not received any passports.

The FT report, published on Friday (10 January) on its website, cites leaked documents revealing that Henley & Partners, a British investment migration consultancy agency based in London, "rejected Shaheen's application for a Maltese passport, noting her links to a company accused by Bangladeshi media outlets of 'illegally obtaining valuable government lands in [the Bangladesh capital] Dhaka'".

The Henley decision refers to allegations from 2012 that a company called Prochhaya, chaired by Shaheen, seized valuable land in Dhaka

Both Tarique and Shaheen's bank accounts were frozen by Bangladeshi authorities in October 2024 after the fall of the Hasina-led government in the face of a student-led mass uprising in August.

The FT, citing the Maltese passport application by Shaheen, wrote that the documents contain details of how Tarique's family, which is now at the centre of concerns about kleptocracy under Sheikh Hasina's rule, arranged its affairs. 

"The Henley decision refers to allegations from 2012 that a company called Prochhaya, chaired by Shaheen, seized valuable land in Dhaka," it stated.

According to the FT, Shaheen listed her role at Prochhaya in her 2013 passport application. Bushra was a director of Prochhaya, according to a 2011 filing.Meanwhile, her husband Tarique, who was Hasina's military adviser from 2009 until the fall of the government, is accused of using the country's security forces to occupy the land for Prochhaya. The company in 2016 sold the land.

Second attempt

Shaheen later filed a joint application to obtain Maltese citizenship in March 2015 with her daughter Bushra.

Details from the 2015 joint application show that the Maltese citizenship would cost €6,50,000 for Shaheen and €25,000 for Bushra; in addition, Henley would take a €70,000 fee.

As part of the application, Shaheen had provided a statement from a dollar-denominated bank account in Kuala Lumpur showing a balance of $2.76 million as proof of funds.

Following the outright rejection of her first application due to her connection with Procchaya, Shaheen made no mention of Prochhaya in the second attempt

The cash had been deposited over the previous two months in 11 transactions, the FT report states, adding that the source of the money is not specified in the document.

The currency rules in Bangladesh prevent people from taking more than $12,000 out of the country in a year.

"Bushra, who was studying in London on a student visa, gave her address at the time as a second-floor flat in the grand Gothic building that towers above St Pancras station in central London," stated the report.

FT wrote that this property was a few minutes' walk from her cousin Tulip's King's Cross flat, which was given to Tulip by a British Bangladeshi businessman for free in 2004, about which the British daily had previously reported.

No mention of Procchaya in second application

"Instead, she lists her company as 'The Art Press Pvt Ltd' in Chattogram, southern Bangladesh," wrote FT.

Citing an internal email from a Henley employee, the FT stated that this time "whilst no adverse information has been identified", the Maltese authorities needed more information about the company.

In reply, another employee said the Art Press was a business started by Shaheen's grandfather in the year 1926.

The company's main business at that time was 'printing' and Shaheen is the managing director of the company since 2013.

As part of the application, Shaheen had provided a statement from a dollar-denominated bank account in Kuala Lumpur showing a balance of $2.76 million as proof of funds

In the last of the leaked documents from late 2015, Shaheen is on a list of clients headed "Applications Cancelled and/or Rejected". Malta's official gazette confirms that neither Shaheen nor Bushra received a passport.

Bushra stayed in the UK after her studies. Shortly after she graduated from University College London, she joined investment bank JPMorgan before quitting to become a "lifestyle, fashion and travel" influencer in 2018.

In an interview on YouTube last year, Bushra said she decided to quit her job at the investment bank after "struggling" for a period.

"I come from a privileged position... I was actually married back then so I did have a husband. I didn't have to worry about a roof over my head if I had somebody who was there to cover the rent," she is quoted by FT to have said in the YouTube interview.

In 2018, Bushra purchased a five-bedroom house in Golders Green, North London, for £1.9mn jointly with her husband. Land Registry filings show that the property has no mortgage against it. 

"I had savings and if my savings ran out I knew my parents were there...," Bushra added on YouTube.

Bushra Siddique and Shaheen Siddique did not respond to a request for comment from the FT, the outlet reports, adding that Henley & Partners also confirmed that they had not received passports.

Tarique also could not be reached for a comment immediately.