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[Applause]
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[Music]
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an uprising in
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Bangladesh with protesters calling out
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corruption by the political Elite
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resulting in the Prime Minister fleeing
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the country breaking news story the
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Bangladesh Prime Minister shik casena
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has
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resigned but before the uphe
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aljazera was already on the trail of one
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of those
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accused we went undercover into his
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Network my client they are very
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Untouchable people to investigate
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allegations of a hidden Fortune I have a
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very penous nice penous evading
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scrutiny you a big project
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Authority enjoying his riches in London
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I love suits the super2 200 cost 6,000
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but with growing anger about his wealth
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we go on the trail of The Minister's
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[Music]
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Millions long before the uprising
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alzer's eye unit had a tip
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off that a Bangladeshi Minister on a
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$113,000 salary had a master property
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Empire in in
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Britain the i unit set up an undercover
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team to investigate the
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allegation by 2023 the year before the
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protests in Bangladesh our undercover
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reporters reached the ministers Inner
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Circle and were invited into his $14
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million London
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home hello hello are hello Mr Lee please
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welcome welcome
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[Music]
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yeah it's a very private house I need
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very secure
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house how many
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in this is
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[Music]
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my this my new
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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R saam andri is from a powerful family
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in the port city of chiong
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he is a close Confidant of the Prime
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Minister in 2014 he became a member of
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Parliament and Junior Minister and in
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2019 Shay castina promoted him to head
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the land
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Ministry my father was very close with
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prime minister actually I'm
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also she's my
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boss child's wealth comes from business
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and his stake in one of Bangladesh's
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largest banks UCB
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but Bangladesh's strict currency rules
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designed to protect the economy prevent
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citizens from taking more than $122,000
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a year out of the
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country our foreign currency Reserve has
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gone down drastically if someone were to
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take money out of Bangladesh without the
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specific permission of the Central Bank
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this is certainly a crime under money
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laundering
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act the i unit set out to investigate
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the ministers overseas
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wealth first we needed to establish how
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much property the minister owned in
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Britain the results were
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surprising chalry set up a string of
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companies in the
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UK between 2016 and 2021 he bought 265
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homes across
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Britain he was buying from major
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development
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like Barkley group your minister is in
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business yo he's in the property
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business he's making a killing from the
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housing crisis but the buying spree
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didn't stop there in 2021 chowri
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purchased this plush London property for
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nearly $6
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million chry's properties are boletes
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which he rents out to generate
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profits then in 2022 he bought 89 homes
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our analysis shows he owned an estimated
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360 homes totaling over
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$250
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million and here's an extremely rich and
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extremely well-connected
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politician and he's buying up hundreds
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of housing units in the UK this guy who
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is supposedly an elected Democratic
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politician of an extremely poor
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country as a prominent politician from
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Bangladesh a country that ranks highly
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on International corruption
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indexes Mr chowri would have faced
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stringent checks when dealing with
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estate agents Banks lenders and
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lawyers anti-money laundering laws
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consider high- ranking politicians and
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government officials to be a high
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corruption risk their wealth could be
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stolen State funds or bribes paid to
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obtain government contracts they're
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known as politically exposed persons or
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peps and require extra scrutiny
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so how did the minister pass these tests
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to find out we deployed an undercover
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team to view one of his rental
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properties Mar lion he has over 300
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homes just in London
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alone this is a sales agent for letting
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agency moving City he comes to London
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buy a few homes and any Jets off during
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lockdown we spent 200 million just on
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new homes in UK
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we checked whether chower had declared
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his overseas assets on his Bangladesh
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tax returns and electoral filings he
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hadn't the Constitution is very clear
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because as a minister they cannot have
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any other source of income yes a
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politician MP or MP candidate must
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declare their Global asset position so
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the income or asset they have in the
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country and abroad
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[Music]
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hello sir how are you very well thank
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you as we had hoped the agent offered to
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introduce us to his boss thank you very
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much Ripon Mahmud is an estate agent
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originally from The Minister's hometown
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of Chittagong he works discreetly with
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wealthy clients like cusum and
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chowri so my clients I don't get me
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wrong they're like how can I say they
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are very Untouchable people and uh they
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trust you they build the trust any
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investment 10 million million
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happening Ripon Mahmud is on his way to
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a London hotel to meet our undercover
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team thank you very much thank you we
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are posing as wealthy overseas investors
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looking to move $100 million out of
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China into the UK property
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Market we Billy Billy to me
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you Keen for business the agent gave us
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the next clue about our Target Mr
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chowri a good friend of mine Mr so this
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guy the
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exactly what you want me to do with
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you exactly pretty much I done for
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him he's from
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Dubai uh
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China was a foreigner yeah of course
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he's a he's a c and forer he's a sitting
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Minister he's a powerful minister
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he's smart what he does he doesn't go
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big project when he go big project
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Authority
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G big money big numbers everybody get a
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lot you know what I'm saying so he gets
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10
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million you know what I'm saying and and
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you have to look I didn't buy cash ah
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bang land
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money while Ripon was managing The
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Minister's business in
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London elections loomed in
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Bangladesh ay enjoyed the Limelight as a
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leading figure in the Hina government
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promising to root out
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corruption meanwhile our team in London
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made a
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breakthrough we heard the minister had
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us
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assets he had purchased nine luxury
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apartments five in Prime New York
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locations and another four across the
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river in New
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Jersey after more meetings Ripon
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admitted to us his client was Minister
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Chow I one my biggest Cent coming to
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town tomorrow he's coming from
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Bangladesh he's a land Minister and he's
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a client of yeah I said everything I got
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like four years
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ago every year he invest to me about
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over 100
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[Music]
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million we need it to get to the min
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before he returned to
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[Music]
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Bangladesh but first Ripon said we
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should meet chry's advisers how are you
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Hi how are you good to see
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you so we met The Minister's
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lawyer subir Desai is a partner at
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Charles Douglas solicitors in
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Mayfair he is also the firm's money
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laundering reporting officer responsible
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for ensuring the company complies with
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regulations this one this one you can do
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this one here he is enjoying dinner with
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his client the minister and
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Ripon since 2021 his firm has done legal
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work on over a 100 loan transactions for
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chre companies working on refinancing
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properties
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next Ripon introduced us to Rahul m a
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private wealth manager at DBS one of the
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biggest Asian
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Banks Ripon said rahul's bank had faced
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challenges in onboarding Mr Chow the
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banking term for screening new clients
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before accepting
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them
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CH s bank red light
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they're very stri we couldn't on even
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think
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sit but by January 2024 DBS made 19
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Loans To The Minister's companies
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helping Finance his
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Empire
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finally Ripon introduced our undercover
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team to Parish
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Raja CEO of bridge Finance lender Market
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Financial
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Solutions the Mayfair lenders businesses
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made hundreds of loans to the
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minister what you're seeing here is a
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kind of network clearly that is having
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an impact on The Minister's
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reach ripon's Network also includes the
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developers that sold to Mr
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chower who bought nearly a quarter of
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his properties over 80 from Barkley
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homes one of Britain's top builders
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we sent in a new undercover reporter to
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meet Ripon at a Barkley Sales Event to
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find out how a minister and politically
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exposed person could have bought so much
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property from them so I work with them
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very very
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CL I
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know
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so I said what
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pass so they know how I
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so for me I put them
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they our undercover meeting revealed yet
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another clue about the
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minister so I work with there
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few one of them with
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Minister I go for du as well
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[Music]
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we followed up the Dubai lead and
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discovered even more of The Minister's
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properties analyzing a leak of Dubai
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Property Data reveals the scale of his
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buying the minister is listed owner of a
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luxury apartment at the Dubai Warf
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culture Village his wife Ruka Zaman
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bought property in this high-end
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development by 2020 the minister was the
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listed owner of another 54 properties in
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the city's most exclusive
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developments having met the network of
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advisers and established the minister
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owned hundreds of properties in the UK
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America and Dubai we finally met the
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minister himself at his London
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home that's beautiful would he reveal to
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us the secret of how he had built his
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vast overseas Empire I love this
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house Mr C he in realy that is his
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business all the profer invested in
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Dubai
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London how many properties you have in
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London I can put business here I have a
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good
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portfolio and I also have a a portfolio
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in Dubai I have the best proper
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downtown I have near du in Oprah I have
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a very Penthouse nice Penthouse well but
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I also bought a villa with private
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Lagoon and everything it's very nice
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I have a in Singapore
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Malaysia I have a prop in New York
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Manhattan very nice okay I got some
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though he explained how a discreet fixer
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on the ground is
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essential all the properties your London
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R
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are
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through he's my
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main he's my brother I don't dealing
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with anybody
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I trust him he admitted prime minister
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Shake Casina knew about his secret
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wealth she knows I have a business
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here we asked how he had financed his
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spending spree I like remember Parish
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Raja who we met
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earlier the porish is a he's strong he's
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a
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strong do you know him well of course
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yeah right he lend me so much money I so
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you didn't
00:15:27
work forish give you about 100 million I
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have been G $100 million line okay
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for forish the banking section Mr C is
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very strongly alive anything problem he
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just jump
00:15:44
him the politician then turned to more
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important matters I like your shoe you
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like the shoe yeah nice shoe what turn
00:15:53
is this T and I also make it t I also
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order in her M takes 4 months I £3,000
00:16:02
each each each 3,000 shoes each CR B CR
00:16:09
uh biley crop half full full biley crop
00:16:14
is 6,000 so half B Croc with cff skin
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£3,000 very nice four
00:16:23
months every time you come you spend
00:16:25
about 2 in
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the I love to
00:16:29
super 200 super 180 super 200 cost
00:16:32
£6,000 canal in Bound Street they I just
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go and and the send it to my
00:16:38
house the suits the shoes the rolls the
00:16:43
houses but how did he get the money here
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remember you can only take $122,000 a
00:16:49
year out of
00:16:51
Bangladesh so how did you invest the
00:16:54
money here transfer the money from I
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have a business in Dubai
00:17:00
so from I have a trading real estate
00:17:02
business in Dubai so I bring money from
00:17:06
Dubai to here and then I took a loan
00:17:09
from here but where did the money in
00:17:12
Dubai come from Ripon
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explained but he us his Dubai companies
00:17:18
are more more work with his Bangladeshi
00:17:20
companies yeah traing traing all sort of
00:17:22
things those remarks may be of interest
00:17:25
to the authorities in
00:17:27
Bangladesh we raised our cover story
00:17:30
with him that we needed to move $100
00:17:32
million cash from China he offered to
00:17:36
help I have a one Connection in
00:17:41
Dubai I can ask
00:17:44
him whether he will accept any cash in
00:17:47
China then he'll pay in
00:17:51
Dubai and he knew his way around
00:17:54
underground
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banking my guy du can give you
00:18:00
money I have to ask
00:18:02
me how much is
00:18:05
cash then he pays you in Dubai if I tell
00:18:10
him look at Dubai I'll pay you 100
00:18:13
million you 100 that's not an issue but
00:18:16
my suggestion to you would
00:18:18
be slowly slowly bring the money outside
00:18:22
China and slowly
00:18:25
slowly back through different Channel
00:18:28
not official
00:18:31
TR thank you so much inde did later
00:18:35
after reflecting chry
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backtracked see it's not going to work
00:18:40
you can't no I can't no way no is he
00:18:43
just talking to a friend as a I don't
00:18:46
think so if he is not for proper CH I
00:18:51
don't no that Central Bank will flag
00:18:55
up or whenever you get a Time come here
00:18:59
check in my
00:19:06
house with a standing invitation to see
00:19:08
the minister again in the cab Ripon
00:19:12
Finally Revealed the true scale of The
00:19:14
Minister's Global
00:19:16
wealth I hand over I manage everything
00:19:19
for
00:19:20
him no actually he got 20 million stock
00:19:23
New York San
00:19:25
Francisco but Dubai he got 195
00:19:29
so1 195 million he invested in Dubai do
00:19:33
state London go about 300 plus
00:19:38
million our tip had paid
00:19:41
off we had discovered the total value of
00:19:44
The Minister's hidden
00:19:46
assets nearly $700
00:19:50
million but we had one final surprise in
00:19:56
store new Company accounts showed the by
00:19:59
2022 chowder had personally loaned a
00:20:01
staggering £47 million equivalent to $62
00:20:05
million to
00:20:09
himself none of this was ever declared
00:20:12
by chry to the Bangladesh tax
00:20:14
[Music]
00:20:16
authorities something that one lawyer
00:20:18
said could also be a problem for him in
00:20:20
Britain if a person particularly a pep
00:20:24
has made false declarations on their tax
00:20:27
returns
00:20:28
that can be a real problem here if there
00:20:32
is any um suspicion that a person is
00:20:36
dealing with What's called the benefit
00:20:39
from Criminal conduct and is bringing
00:20:43
that benefit
00:20:44
here then that potentially is an offense
00:20:48
of money laundering even
00:20:50
if the potential criminal conduct has
00:20:53
happened in another
00:20:55
country we had our last meeting with
00:20:58
Ripon where he had a warning for his
00:21:00
client if he didn't protect his new
00:21:03
found wealth I told him I keep telling
00:21:06
him last 3 years I said a 3600 million
00:21:10
700 million asset and you
00:21:13
met he can talk to me about rollsroyce
00:21:16
shoes is hard he shoes please he's like
00:21:20
a
00:21:21
kid what's the Met view last few months
00:21:25
we had a go you going to get sorry for
00:21:29
my
00:21:30
friend he going to give
00:21:41
and as the bangler protests reached
00:21:44
boiling
00:21:47
point the people wanted to find out
00:21:49
where the country's looted riches had
00:21:54
gone their prime minister shik Hena had
00:21:57
fled the country
00:21:59
country her government
00:22:02
fell regime loyalists were
00:22:10
detained protests erupted outside UCB
00:22:13
bank shareholders accused Chow of
00:22:16
looting
00:22:19
it soon after the Central Bank dissolved
00:22:22
ucb's board in order to protect the
00:22:24
interests of depositors and the bank
00:22:28
Bangladesh authorities also ordered
00:22:31
Banks to suspend the transactions of
00:22:33
chry's personal and business bank
00:22:36
accounts anti-corruption Watchdogs say
00:22:39
Chow's case Rings alarm Bells this
00:22:43
really has to be a wakeup call to the UK
00:22:48
about the loopholes we have the
00:22:51
weaknesses of our regulation um and the
00:22:54
fact that if we're really serious about
00:22:58
closing down London as a center for
00:23:01
corrupt Elites we have to have far
00:23:04
stronger regulation and
00:23:05
enforcement and Western countries should
00:23:08
take a tougher stand against Capital
00:23:11
flight the wealth of the developing poor
00:23:15
countries must remain in this PO in
00:23:17
those countries for the well-being of
00:23:19
the people of those
00:23:22
countries chry's future is
00:23:26
uncertain his exact whereabouts
00:23:29
unknown but the eye unit obtained a
00:23:31
recording of a recent
00:23:33
[Music]
00:23:53
call Bangladesh is now investigating
00:23:56
chry for the illegal acquisition of
00:23:58
hundreds of millions of dollars
00:24:03
[Music]
00:24:28
he
00:24:33
[Music]
00:25:06
[Applause]
