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. [5] [6]
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 where 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 credited 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 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]
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]
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