In October last year, lawyers representing S Alam and his family formally filed an arbitration claim with ICSID, headquartered in Washington, DC.
The claim alleges that the Bangladesh government caused hundreds of billions of dollars in losses by freezing assets and taking other punitive measures on allegations of illegal money laundering.
In their application, the S Alam family alleged that the interim government deliberately targeted them by freezing bank accounts, seizing properties, conducting “baseless” investigations into their business activities and running a “provocative media campaign”.
He claimed that these actions violated international investment treaties.
S Alam and his family filed the arbitration case under the 2004 Bangladesh-Singapore Bilateral Investment Treaty.
According to the documents, the family renounced Bangladeshi citizenship in 2020 and acquired Singapore citizenship between 2021 and 2023. He currently lives in Singapore.
The family has claimed that as Singapore citizens they are entitled to international investment protection. They have also sought protection under Bangladesh’s Foreign Private Investment (Promotion and Protection) Act, 1980.