S Alam’s tax file shows no foreign income

S Alam Group owner Mohammed Saiful Alam's 2022-2023 tax file is a puzzle. In that tax year, he declared personal assets worth Tk 2,532 crore, but did not show any personal bank loans from Bangladesh or his foreign income.

He, however, declared Tk 2,546 crore in loans from his "relatives". A closer look at his tax file reveals that many of these extremely generous "relatives" are in fact companies owned by him and his family.

These "relatives" include his own companies S Alam & Co., Sonali Traders, Genesis Textile, Accessories and Apparels Ltd, his cousin Ansarul Alam Chowdhury's company M/S Ansar Enterprise, his brothers and company directors Osman Gani and Abdullah Hasan, among others.

Ansarul Alam was detained at the Shah Amanat International Airport on September 2, 2024, over allegations of taking bank loans worth over Tk 1,970 crore in the names of shell companies.

S Alam himself is currently under the scanner in connection with alleged laundering of thousands of crores from Bangladesh through astronomical borrowing from his family-owned banks. Government regulators are also looking into his offshore empire.

Last year, an investigation by found that he has built a business empire in Singapore worth at least about $1 billion, although there is no record of him taking any permission from Bangladesh Bank to invest or transfer any funds abroad.

That figure of $1 billion was based on his company 2021 filings with Singapore's Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority. Has now obtained his filings of 2022, which show that his wealth there rose to $1.5 billion.

Just three days ago on September 26, Has reported that SS Power, a company owned by S Alam Group, has laundered $815 million (nearly Tk 10,000 crore) to China through two LCs using fake invoices. The matter is now under investigation by regulators. 

Earlier in August this year, this newspaper reported that S Alam Group and its concerns took out Tk 95,331 crore since 2017 from six banks, with 79 percent of the amount coming from Islami Bank. 

According to his 2022-23 Bangladesh fax file, S Alam lent Tk 330 crore to his three sons, his mother, his brother and 11 companies owned by him and his sons.

The highest amount of his loans -- Tk 2,335 crore -- from "relatives" comes from his parent company S Alam & Co. His total liabilities stood at Tk 2,215 crore, while his net worth was Tk 303 crore last year.

However, his tax return shows no foreign income, although financial statements of his Singaporean company show his business empire there is expanding.

His company, Wilkinson International, had an annual turnover of over $77 million or Tk 924 crore in the year ending December 2022 and made a profit of $2.6 million (Tk 30.85 crore). This period covers the first six months of the Bangladesh tax year for which S Alam said he had no foreign income.

His total income in 2022-23 from Bangladeshi sources is about Tk 30 crore, according to his tax filing.

Wilkinson International was founded by S Alam and his wife Farzana Parveen on August 27, 2009, with Alam controlling 70 percent, and his wife the rest 30 percent.

The couple resigned as directors from Wilkinson on December 16, 2020, and transferred ownership to an offshore entity, Peacock Property Holdings Ltd, in the British Virgin Islands. An infamous tax haven, British Virgin Islands is a secrecy jurisdiction, and companies are not legally obliged to name their shareholders or directors on any official filings.

Wilkinson's financial statement also says that in 2022, the company received $498 million or Tk 5,949 crore in financing.

Could not reach S Alam by phone and WhatsApp as his phone was found switched off.

Awrongojeb Khan, deputy commissioner of taxes, confirmed that S Alam never reported his foreign income in his tax return.

Under tax rules of 1984 and 2023, declaration of foreign income is mandatory. Violation of the rules can be penalised by monetary fines and confiscation of assets.