The chairman of Bangladesh's Summit Group, Muhammad Aziz Khan, is included among Singapore's top 50 richest persons. At present, he stands as the 41st wealthiest person in Singapore. This position has been emphasized by US-based business and commerce magazine Forbes, based on a poll and figures up until September of last year. According to Forbes' list of 2024 billionaires, Muhammad Aziz Khan is one of the world's wealthiest people.
Forbes released a list of the top billionaires on April 2 that includes the names of 2,781 individuals from 78 different countries. Aziz Khan comes in at number 2545 on the list. It indicates that he is worth $1.12 billion in total. His income is listed as being in the energy sector.
According to Forbes, 68-year-old Aziz Khan is a permanent resident of Singapore of Bangladeshi origin. He had to give up his Bangladeshi citizenship. Due to related reasons. Summit Group is a top private company in Bangladesh. They deal with power, ports, fiber optics, housing, and liquefied natural gas. Aziz Khan is Singapore's 41st richest man. He was number 42 on the country's top rich list in 2023.
Aziz Khan, 68, is a permanent citizen of Singapore and is originally from Bangladesh, according to Forbes. He was forced to renounce his citizenship in Bangladesh. because of associated factors. One of Bangladesh's leading private companies is Summit Group. They handle housing, liquefied natural gas, fiber optics, ports, and power. He ranked 41st among the richest men in Singapore, while he ranked 42nd on the list of the richest people in 2023.
With a $233 billion fortune, French billionaire Bernard Arnault is ranked highest on the most recent Forbes list. Elon Musk is in second place with $195 billion, and Jeff Bezos is in third place with $194 billion. Apart from this, Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg is in the fourth position with 177 billion dollars. Bill Gates is ranked seventh this year, continuing his long-standing trend of being ranked #1 on the Forbes list. He is worth $128 billion in total. With $133 billion, Warren Buffett is ranked sixth. Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani is ranked in the top ten on the list. He is worth $116 billion in total. With a net worth of $84 billion, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani comes in 17th place. On the list, the United States is home to the greatest number of billionaires. The list includes 813 billionaires from the nation.
The name of Summit Group's Aziz Khan came to the fore in the Panama Papers corruption case related to money laundering in 2016. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has started an investigation in this regard, but it has not been able to complete the investigation due to government-level influence and legal complications.
Aziz Khan smuggled almost all the money earned through corruption and embezzlement in various sectors, including the power sector in Bangladesh, to Singapore. Recently, such information has emerged from the office of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). Just two months ago, BTRC decided that Summit Communications could transfer its shares without any fee. However, the company suddenly withdrew from that decision. It was alleged that Summit Communications was transferring and selling shares under the guise of issuing new shares.
After its debut in 2009, Summit Communications has become one of the largest companies in the telecom and internet sectors. The company sought BTRC's approval to issue new shares worth Tk 1.705 crore to two separate companies based in Abu Dhabi and Mauritius by the end of March. 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 preapproval. Government approval came in the following month. BTRC allowed the company to transfer shares without any charges on June 12, 2024. BTRC sought a legal opinion from a law firm before sending it for government approval, which said that since Summit is only issuing new shares, the rule of paying a 5.5 percent fee on the total sale price of shares will not apply to Summit Communications. Summit also mentions the same in this case: 'This fee is not applicable, as the company is raising its capital by issuing new shares.' However, senior BTRC officials say that BTRC's legal and licensing department wanted to push the charges on the company from the beginning. Because Summit was actually transferring and selling shares under the guise of issuing new shares.
Muhammad Farid Khan, chairman of Summit Communications, is the younger brother of Awami League presidium member and then Aviation and Tourism Minister Faruque Khan. Farid is also a close friend of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son and former ICT advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy. As a result, they also complained that the summit was getting special benefits.
The share sale agreements with the summit companies were also submitted to BTRC. Adiba Aziz Khan, daughter of Muhammad Aziz Khan and niece of Farid Khan, is one of the shareholders in the deal to give Summit's new stake to Global Energy, an Abu Dhabi-based company. This company was issued 9.44 crore shares worth Tk 113 crore 38 lakh out of new shares. On the other hand, another 4.4 crore shares worth Tk 48.59 crore were given to Mauritius-based Sequoia Infra Tech.
In this situation, when Sheikh Hasina's government collapsed on August 5, BTRC again wrote to the law firm and said that their legal opinion was only advisory and not binding. BTRC sent a letter to Summit Communication stating that the decision not to pay their share transfer fee has changed on August 15. The letter reached the Khaborer Kagoj. An official of Summit Communications told the Khaborer Kagoj that Summit Communications has already deposited Tk 10 crore 24 lakh to the regulatory body in view of the letter given by BTRC.
"Attempting to steal this money from Summit Communications and later pay it off is a small example of Summit Group's abuse of power. As a result, this payment should not be covered by the abuse of power of the Summit and financial irregularities, on the other hand. And this recovery is an example that the government can use its powers judiciously to save the country from the financial irregularities of the past," said Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of Transparency International (TIB) in this regard.
