Zakir Hossain / Dhaka
A new Financial Times documentary, “Bangladesh’s Missing Billions, Stolen in Plain Sight”, alleges that nearly $234 billion was siphoned out of Bangladesh during Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure as prime minister.
The film, featuring protesters, experts, and politicians, probes how vast sums were moved abroad through over- and under-invoicing, hawala networks and property deals, much of it allegedly landing in London. It also scrutinises alleged offshore assets and foreign land holdings of Hasina’s family. Tulip Siddiq, her niece and UK Labour MP, is named in connection with high-value properties. She rejects the claims, saying the allegations are “politically motivated.”
Student-movement leaders Rafia Rehnuma Hridi and Rezwan Ahmed Rifad, FT’s South Asia bureau chief Jon Reed, former Dhaka-based journalist Sujana Saviz, and corruption experts including Helen Taylor of Spotlight on Corruption and Prof Moshtaq Khan of SOAS appear in the film. They stress that recovering any looted wealth will be an uphill battle. “You can steal billions, hire the best financial counsellors, hide assets carefully— but tracing them back requires painstaking legal, diplomatic and forensic work,” one source said.
The film argues that corruption, impunity and lack of transparency fuelled the mass protests of 2024 that ousted Hasina, while Bangladesh’s weak institutions made it especially vulnerable to capital flight.