Remove ads
Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat is a Bangladeshi Businessman connected to the Awami League government.[1][2] Sarafat is the founder chairman of the board of trustees of Canadian University of Bangladesh.[3][4] He was the chairman of Padma Bank PLC.[5][6]
_(cropped).png)
Sarafat is from Gopalganj District.[1] His older brother is sports commentator Chowdhury Jafarullah Sharafat.[7]
Sarafat started his career in 1999 at Standard Chartered Bank.[8] He was appointed a director of IFIC Bank and left Standard Chartered Bank after questions were raised about his connections to two banks simultaneously.[8]
Sarafat joined ICB Islamic Bank as the Head of Consumer Banking in 2008.[8]
Sarafat received his Doctorate in Business Administration from Commonwealth University-London on 15 December 2016.[9] The online only university is not accredited, and the degree is not recognized.[10][11]
In January 2018, Sarafat was appointed chairman of Farmers Bank Limited, later renamed to Padma Bank, after its chairman Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir resigned over allegations of embezzling from the bank.[12] In 2021, Sarafat and Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir accused each other of being corrupt.[13] Alamgir, who is a shareholder of Padma Bank,[14] asked Bangladesh Bank to investigate a loan of a billion taka to Strategic Equity Management allegedly owned by Sarafat.[13] He is the Head of Consumer Banking of ICB Islamic Bank Limited.[15]
Sarafat is the founding chairman of Canadian University of Bangladesh.[16] The university awards Sarafat Chowdhury Merit Scholarship.[17] In October 2021, Benoit Prefontaine, Canadian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, laid the foundation stone for the permanent campus of Canadian University of Bangladesh in Purbachal in a ceremony presided by Sarafat.[18] The plot, initially earmarked for a school, for the university had been allocated in violation of government rules by RAJUK.[19] Mohammad A. Arafat is the chief adviser to the board of trustees.[19][20]
In 2022, Sarafat became a director of the National Tea Company Limited.[21] He founded two news organizations, Dainik Bangla and newsbangla24.com.[8] He founded Citizen TV with Muhammad Shafiqur Rahman, member of parliament, who later alleged Sarafat and Benazir Ahmed forcefully took shares of the TV from him.[8]
The cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore was arrested under the Digital Security Act for drawing cartoons critical of the government, including one where he portrayed Sarafat as a bank embezzler.[22]
Sarafat owns RACE Portfolio and Issue Management which was one of the issue manager in the aborted attempt to list Best Holdings Limited whose permission was denied by Bangladesh Bank.[23] Another issue manager, the government owned ICB Capital Management, denied any involvement with the company.[24] He is a director of Unique Hotel and Resorts Limited, which owns Westin Dhaka.[25] He and his wife are directors of Race Financial Management Inc. and Can-Ban Chambers House, based in Canada.[26][27] He is a major shareholder of RACE Asset Management.[1] He is a member of the executive committee of Bangladesh Association of Banks.[28] He is the Managing Director of Unique Meghnaghat Power Limited, a subsidiary of Unique group.[29][30]
Remove ads
He manipulated the stock prices of many companies for financial gain and caused losses of crores of taka to general shareholders.[31][32][33]
Sarafat is married to Anjuman Ara Shahid.[34] She served as the chairman of Strategic Finance and Investment Limited and later director of Southeast Bank.[34][35] She is the Vice-Chairman of Canadian University of Bangladesh.[34] She also owns shares of Padma Bank.[34] Their request to make their son, Chowdhury Rahib Sarafat, a director of Southeast Bank was denied by Bangladesh Bank as he was under 20.[34]
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
Remove ads