For years, an individual named Shahid Uddin Khan, a Interpol-wanted convicted terror-funder, money launderer and active member of notorious terror-kingpin Dawood Ibrahim’s infamous D-Company has been residing in the United Kingdom while he has invested millions of dirty cash which he has brought into Britain through illegal channels from a number of countries, including Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates. According to Indian daily newspaper The Business Standard, Indian intelligence agencies suspected that this individual, who is a sacked Colonel of Bangladesh Army allegedly was involved in gun running with links with Dawood Ibrahim’s underworld activities.
On May 26, 2019 The Sunday Times published a report titled ‘British Tory party donor charged for funding terrorism’ on this individual. This news also appeared in The National News.
India’s oldest newspaper The Organizer also published a report titled ‘London: Mecca of Islamism’ giving detailed information on this man .
It may be mentioned here that, since 2009, British authorities have allowed this dangerous individual in residing in London by investing over US$ 15 million towards the so-called Golden Visa program, which has already allowed hundreds of criminals from around the world in taking refuge in England.
According to the Transparency International, London is considered as the ‘Capital of dirty money’ as it has been allowing various individuals in bringing-in millions of dollars through illegal channels.
Although Britain boasts of combating financial crime and even competing imposing sanctions on various individuals from different countries by accusing them of amassing wealth through illegal means, Britain’s role of letting nefarious individuals such as Shahid Uddin Khan in investing millions of dollars of dirty cash in England, where the National Crime Agency (NCA) and other law enforcement agencies are surprisingly lethargic in initiating legal actions against these culprits and deporting them to their homeland.
Shahid Uddin Khan (Army No: BA002428, Course: 8-BMA, Commission Date: 10-06-1983) and his wife and daughters entered Britain with millions of dirty cash.
According to credible sources, in 2009, Shahid Uddin Khan invested millions of pounds in the United Kingdom in exchange for obtaining immigrant status under Visa Tier 1, vide VAF No. 511702.
According to immigration records, Shahid Uddin Khan and his family members regularly visit the United Arab Emirates. British intelligence agencies never wanted to know the reason behind this family’s visit to the UAE.
Shahid Uddin Khan is also facing allegations of forging educational certificate of the University of Portsmouth. Under British law, forgery and counterfeiting is considered serious crime, for which, he may face up to 10-years imprisonment.
On May 5, 2022, Shahid Uddin Khan in a post his Facebook ID published photograph of an image of a certificate of ‘Doctor of Philosophy’ (Certificate number 00058408), which he claimed to have been issued by the University of Portsmouth, UK. When a correspondent of BLiTZ contacted the university, they expressed utter surprise as they even have never heard the name of Shahid Uddin Khan.
But things may not anymore remain smooth and trouble-free for Shahid Uddin Khan and members of his family.
According to information the United Kingdom has passed landmark transparency reforms intended to crack down on criminals and bad actors seeking to exploit weaknesses in the country’s financial system to hide their identities and launder the proceeds of crime.
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, which passed into law on October 26, 2023 will make it harder to set up shell companies anonymously and to file false information about company ownership with UK authorities — a practice that has enabled several major scandals, including some documented by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Companies House, the UK’s company registration agency, will be given powers to verify the identities and addresses of company directors, remove non-compliant or fraudulent firms from its register, and share information with criminal investigation agencies.
The new rules will also bolster law enforcement powers to seize and freeze crypto assets, and create a new criminal offense to prosecute large companies for “failure to prevent fraud” committed by members of their staff.
In 2020, ICIJ exposed a cottage industry built around the administration of abuse-prone British limited liability partnerships (LLPs) and limited partnerships (LPs), operating in the heart of London. The shadowy companies are set up by offshore formation agencies, which register the companies and file the required paperwork with the British registrar.
ICIJ identified US$4.5 billion in transactions connected to British shell companies, deemed suspicious by multinational banking groups. The investigation was carried out as part of the FinCEN Files, a project led by ICIJ and BuzzFeed News that found some of the world’s biggest banks were at the center of a sprawling global money laundering industry.
The UK branch of Transparency International, an international anti-corruption advocacy organization, welcomed the passage of The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act as “a major step forward in the fight against corruption” that will build on emergency reforms, passed in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, meant to reveal foreign ownership of UK property.
“It should not have taken the invasion of Ukraine to finally bring this bill forward, but its implementation should significantly strengthen Britain’s defenses against fraud and money laundering,” said Duncan Hames, Transparency International UK’s policy director, in a statement.
