The FT report says, Shaheen Siddique, the aunt of UK anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq, was turned away in 2013 by Henley & Partners, which then had exclusive rights to administer Malta’s citizenship-by-investment programme.
The decision refers to allegations from 2012 that a company called Prochhaya, chaired by Shaheen, seized valuable land in Dhaka. Shaheen listed her role at Prochhaya in her 2013 passport application.
Tarique, who was Sheikh Hasina’s military adviser from 2009 until the fall of the government in August last year, used the country’s security forces to occupy the land for Prochhaya, critics of Sheikh Hasina’s government had claimed.
The company in 2016 sold the land.
Shaheen applied for the Malta passport in 2013 and jointly with her daughter Bushra, first cousin of Tulip Siddique, in 2015.