A £700,000 London flat owned by Tulip Siddiq is under investigation as part of a money-laundering inquiry.

Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is probing whether the former City minister purchased the property using funds tied to one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects.

Siddiq, along with her aunt Sheikh Hasina, the former Bangladeshi prime minister, and other family members, is being investigated over the alleged misappropriation of £3.9 billion linked to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant.

Last month, Siddiq was forced to step down from the front bench after Sir Laurie Magnus, the UK Prime Minister’s ethics adviser, determined that she had unintentionally misled the public regarding the scandal.

Weeks of questions

Tulip Siddiq, who previously served as a Treasury minister responsible for tackling corruption, referred herself for investigation following weeks of scrutiny over her use of London properties linked to her aunt’s political party.

Sheikh Hasina, 77, Bangladesh’s longest-serving prime minister, was ousted last August after violent protests and is now in India. During her time in office, critics were reportedly attacked, arrested, and secretly imprisoned, with the regime accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings.

Hasina and her allies also face allegations of embezzling billions from the country. Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is investigating Siddiq, Hasina, and other family members over claims they misappropriated £3.9 billion related to the Russian-funded Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, a $12.65 billion (£10.1 billion) project.

In its latest update, the ACC stated it had received allegations that Siddiq was given a £700,000 luxury flat in London, supposedly purchased with misappropriated funds from the nuclear power project.

Investigators claimed illicit funds had been funnelled through offshore bank accounts in Malaysia before being used to acquire high-value properties for members of Hasina’s inner circle.

“After our secret investigations confirmed these allegations, we decided to conduct a public inquiry into it,” a top official at the ACC told The Telegraph.

“She [Ms Siddiq] has been implicated in allegations of corruption and financial misconduct. We received complaints that she was involved in money laundering and illicit financial transactions linked to her family members in Bangladesh,” the official said.

‘Her name has surfaced’

“Her name has surfaced in investigations concerning offshore bank accounts and property dealings suspected of being funded through illegal means,” he said.

The ACC said that Ms Siddiq had received a £700,000 flat, while other family members received a £650,000 flat and a £1.58 million property in north London.

Investigators claimed these transactions had been facilitated through international money-laundering operations, and authorities are now scrutinising their financial origins.

It is unclear whether the properties in question are the same as those examined by Sir Keir Starmer’s ethics adviser.

However, Labour sources said a flat, gifted to Ms Siddiq by a businessman linked to her aunt and now worth £700,000, had been transferred to her in 2004 so could not be linked to the nuclear deal, signed in 2013.

‘Timeline does not add up’

A source close to Ms Siddiq said “the timeline does not add up” and that Ms Siddiq had no overseas property or bank accounts. Sir Laurie has also said he found “no suggestion of any unusual financial arrangements” involving the Awami League party or the state of Bangladesh.

The inquiry into Ms Siddiq is part of a wider corruption probe involving Hasina and her family.

The ACC has reported financial irregularities amounting to £4 billion within the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project, which is being constructed with Russian assistance.

Investigators have accused Hasina, her son, Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy, and other close relations, including Ms Siddiq, of benefiting from misappropriated public funds.

In 2013, she posed for a photograph with Hasina alongside Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, at a meeting in Moscow.

Putin agreed to finance the £10 billion Rooppur nuclear reactor, located around 100 miles northwest of Dhaka on the Padma River.

According to the ACC, Ms. Siddiq facilitated the transaction and assisted her family in embezzling around £3.9 billion from the project.

Other significant infrastructure projects in Bangladesh that were reportedly utilised to transfer billions of dollars into offshore accounts have also been the subject of numerous corruption investigations by the ACC.

Ms. Siddiq's spokesperson stated: "There is absolutely no proof to support these claims. Tulip Siddiq completely refutes the allegations and has not been approached on these issues.

Source: Telegraph by Samaan Lateef & Neil Johnston