London flat that Tulip spent years living in was bought using an offshore company: Sunday Times
Company registered in the British Virgin Islands bought the flat for £243,000 in 2000
The flat in London's Hampstead that Tulip Siddiq, UK city minister and ousted Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina's niece, spent years living in was bought by an offshore company named in the Panama Papers and connected to two Bangladeshi businessmen, a Sunday Times investigation found.
The 42-year-old British MP spent several years living in that flat, listing it as her address in 2012 and 2014.
Her husband, Christian Percy, listed the flat as his residence in 2016, the year after Siddiq became an MP.
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Tulip's sister Azmina later sold it for £650,000.
According to The Sunday Times report, Pedrok Ventures, an offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands, bought the flat for £243,000 in 2000.
Documents leaked as part of the Panama Papers and made available by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) demonstrate that Pedrok Ventures was funded through a six-figure loan, later written off, by a second offshore company: Harberton SA.
That entity had two shareholders: Nasim Ali and Masood Ali, two brothers from Bangladesh. They jointly own a company, Shamolima Limited, registered in Dhaka in 1983, which provides logistics and manpower to foreign oil companies operating in the country.
Shamolima has described itself as "one of the leading" businesses in Bangladesh with "vast experience" and noted "the close and complete cooperation from personnel of different government corporations" in its projects as a "tremendous help".
Its clients have included Chevron, Shell and Chinese state-owned companies. The men have a sister business specialising in liquefied natural gas and solar energy whose websites say it has "worked with" the Bangladesh army.
The Sunday Times report says Nasim, now 70 years old, moved to the UK in 1970, married an artist and sent his children to a private school in north London. He returns to Bangladesh only occasionally.
Meanwhile, his brother lives in the US, according to documents filed at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
Alongside their business partner, Shahid Inam Chowdhury, they are linked not only to Pedrok and Harberton SA but to several other trusts in the British Virgin Islands, one called Shamolima.
How the flat ended up with Tulip's sister
In January 2005, the Ali brothers asked for Harberton SA to be dissolved. Less than 24 hours later, the Hampstead flat was transferred as a gift to Moin Ghani, a Bangladeshi barrister then in his mid-twenties who later represented Hasina's government.
He has been pictured with her and once described it as a "personal honour" to be asked by her to serve on an international panel, according to The Sunday Times report.
According to a source in Dhaka, Ghani's parents were close to Siddiq's mother and once owned a restaurant frequented by Awami League officials, read The Sunday Times report.
Neither the Ali brothers nor Ghani responded to the British newspaper's requests for comment.
The Sunday Times visited their two offices in Dhaka, where staff said they could not divulge the directors' whereabouts or put them on the phone.
A source later told the British newspaper that the directors were not familiar with "this matter."
The newspaper found a similar response at the nearby legal chambers of Moin Ghani, who, according to staff, has been in London since last year.
Nobody answered the door at Nasim Ali's home in Cricklewood, northwest London.
A little over four months after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on 17 December started an investigation into allegations of a massive Tk80,000 crore embezzlement against the former PM, her sister Sheikh Rehana and other family members.
Among the family members are Tulip, daughter of Rehana.
Of the Tk80,000 crore embezzlement allegations from different development projects initiated during the Awami League (AL) regime, Tk59,000 crore was reportedly embezzled by Hasina, Rehana, Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and Tulip.
Since the news of Tulip's involvement in such a high-profile inquiry came to light, the UK minister has become headlines in the British media.
News of the alleged allegations, her past misdeeds, and her being questioned by UK officials have become regular news for several British media outlets, including The Guardian, BBC, Daily Mail, Financial Times, The Telegraph, and Sunday Times.
More recently, leader of the UK's Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to dismiss Tulip over allegations of corruption.
Her statement came after the Chief Adviser of the interim government, Muhammad Yunus, in an interview with The Sunday Times, called on Tulip to apologise for using properties given to her and her family by the Awami League regime.
He said the London properties used by Tulip should be investigated and returned if she is found to have benefited from such "plain robbery".
