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five MPs with the highest amount of loans, according to a Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) analysis. He mentioned Tk 24 crore investment in business shares.

The financial statements of the £2.7 million (Tk 39.5 crore) British firm Teatulia UK Ltd were submitted to the ACC recently, and The Daily Star collected a copy of the documents.

The UK company is an offshoot of a bigger company – Teatulia – based out of Delaware, the US state known as a tax haven because of its lenient taxation system.

With its office in Denver, Colorado, the Teatulia imports and markets tea from Bangladesh. It was formed on November 29, 2007, by Nabil, Anis and Inam. A US citizen named Linda Appel Lipsius was added in 2010, company documents show.

The three brothers invested more than $18 million (Tk 215 crore) in the company up until November 2020, according to company documents.

The total worth of their foreign investment in Teatulia concerns in the US and the UK amounts to approximately Tk 254.5 crore.

However, strict capital controls in Bangladesh fully restrict who can transfer money abroad, where, and how much.

“My clients were actually investors in Teatulia (UK). That was where all the money came from,” N Hamilton, the lawyer for Nabil, Anis and Inam, told the court.

Hamilton did not disclose where his clients got the money to invest in the company.

Teatulia UK’s financial statements submitted to the ACC show that the investments came from Dubai-based Double Core General Trading LLC and Aramex International, and Singapore-based Global Biz Import Export Pte Ltd. A total of 10 transactions from 2020 to 2022 were marked out by The Daily Star.

The Teatulia UK’s liquidation report, after it ceased operations in 2023, called Double Core an investor, which is owned by Anis, Canadian citizen Mohammed Sohail Rana and an Emirati named Abdulla Hassan Ali, records from the UAE National Economic Register and a copy of the commercial licence of the company show. It is located in a residential neighbourhood called Deira Al Murar.

Anis holds controlling shares at the firm.

The Singapore-based Global Biz Import Export is a Bangladeshi-owned clearing house or commission agent, according to documents from Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority.

The firm is wholly owned by a Bangladeshi citizen named Sheikh Mohammad Wahiduzzaman Ripon, whose address is in Dhaka’s Malibagh.

The Teatulia UK’s liquidation report shows that the company only made a profit in 2020, and that too, only £25,247.

Before it began business, the organisation spent £500,000 on refurbishments alone.

BRAND FOR WHAT PURPOSE?

The tea comes from Gemcon Group’s Teatulia organic tea plantation in the northwest of the country. A report published in The Daily Star back on May 9, 2012, narrates how Teatulia transformed barren land into an organic agricultural haven.

“Teatulia’s success was laudable, but its next challenge was to sell the tea outside of Bangladesh,” the report said. “In 2009, with American co-founder and CEO Linda Appel Lipsius, the tea for the American market was christened Teatulia, after its homeland. Lipsius helped to arrange the organic packaging from top to bottom, including corn silk bags and water-based ink for the packaging.”

Forbes ran a story about Teatulia in April 2019, calling it a “brand with a purpose”.

The UK counterpart of the company was incorporated on August 22, 2017, and started trading on September 27, 2018, with Nabil and his brothers as the only investors, according to court documents.

Their British business partner Ahsan Akbar was a director.

The business involved a tea cafe at 36 Neal Street in London’s Covent Garden. The business’s liquidation report, submitted to the ACC, states that it was also an event space for film screenings, author events, and private parties, along with a tea wholesale point.

The London venture was about marketing the uniqueness of Bangladeshi tea, court documents show.

While hearing the case on whether to grant Nabil and his brothers an injunction against their business partner, UK High Court judge Justice Sir Robert Jay told their lawyers that there is information that “might have the tendency to embarrass your clients because it puts them in a poor light in relation to Bangladeshi money laundering regulations”.

Chloe Strong, the lawyer for the British business partner Ahsan, argued that there is a “ban on Bangladeshi nationals possessing foreign companies unless they get approval from the central bank” and that “essentially it can amount to a breach of money laundering regulations in Bangladesh by doing so without the relevant approval”.

Nabil’s lawyer Hamilton denied claims that Bangladeshi money laundering laws were flouted, while insisting that they were the only investors.

Justice Jay denied Nabil and his brothers the injunction. However, they appealed the decision and got the injunction on July 22.

While Nabil and Inam did not respond to The Daily Star’s queries, their lawyer Ivon J Sampson told this correspondent that they do not wish to talk to the reporter because a response “would defeat the whole object of them obtaining the injunction in the first place which is to prevent the publication of private and commercial information about them”.

Responding to The Daily Star’s questions, Kazi Anis said, “We categorically deny any wrongdoing. The international brand of our tea was built with investments from abroad. Ideally, good Bangladeshi businesses and brands should be able to expand into international markets ...

“For us, creating a brand like Teatulia, and other initiatives like sponsorship of Dhaka Lit Fest, was all about showcasing Bangladesh to the world in a positive light …” he added.