Bangladesh initiates investigation into Russia-backed Rooppur nuclear project

Anti-corruption probe reveals embezzlement in $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear power plant project involving Bangladesh officials and UK MP.

An anti-corruption outfit in Bangladesh has initiated investigation into the $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear powerplant that is being constructed with Russian assistance. A statement from the Anti-Corruption Commission of Bangladesh has alleged that around $5 billion financial irregularities have been discovered in the project that has been progressing for more than a decade.

“The report implicates ousted Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy and niece Tulip Siddiq – who have embezzled $5 billion from overpriced $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear power plant through various offshore bank accounts in Malaysia,” the Anti-Corruption Commission has declared in a statement.

The commission further said that Tulip Siddiq who is a Labour MP in the United Kingdom and has been facing scrutiny in the U.K. since the fall of the government of her aunt Sheikh Hasina was involved in an elaborate scheme to launder money that involved her paternal uncle Tarique Ahmed Siddique. “Tulip Siddiq and her family members are stakeholders in a company named Prochchaya which along with another entity Destinty Group had laundered $900 million,” it has been alleged.

Earlier, Sunday Times in the U.K. reported that U.K. Treasury Economic Secretary Tulip Siddiq was questioned by the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team over allegations of siphoning around  £3.9 billion from the Rooppur nuclear power plant project. Ms Siddiq’s mother Sheikh Rehana is the younger sister of Sheikh Hasina and was evacuated by a Bangladesh military helicopter to India on August 5 when the Awami League government fell in Dhaka.

The under construction Rooppur nuclear power plant is located 160 km from Dhaka and is one of the largest nuclear projects that Russsian nuclear major Rosatom has been building. The deal to build the power plant was initiated in February 2011 which led to an initial contract between Rosatomm and Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission in December 2015.

Subsequently the Bangladesh Atomic Regulatory Authority issued the first site licence for the plant in June 2016. The project has been under construction since 2017 and the first unit of the nuclear power project is expected to be completed in 2025. Once fully operational the power plant will generate 2400 megawatt electricity.

The project has been in international spotlight because of western sanctions that Russia has been facing since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. To dispel doubts, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Dhaka in September 2023 when he assured then Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen about Russia’s commitment to complete the project on time.