Begumpara: Bangladesh’s Stolen Wealth Finds a Home in Canada

Not far from the glittering skyline of downtown Toronto in Canada, in the leafy suburbs of Mississauga and Markham, stand rows of palatial homes — elegant, glass-fronted, and conspicuously quiet. To a casual visitor, these neighborhoods look like any other prosperous corner of suburban Canada. But to Bangladeshis back home, they symbolize something far darker: a destination for the country’s looted wealth.

A recent exposé by Bangladesh Pratidin, one of the nation’s largest newspapers, has reignited debate over “Begumpara,” a term now synonymous with corruption, luxury, and flight from accountability. The report, published on October 5, 2025, claims that since August 2024, Bangladesh’s interim government has launched initiatives to recover billions of dollars siphoned overseas — much of it ending up in Canada.

Investigators believe at least one thousand Bangladeshis suspected of large-scale money laundering have made Canada their permanent home. They include senior bureaucrats, influential businesspeople, and politicians who accumulated immense fortunes through corruption before quietly moving their assets abroad.

Between 2006 and November 2024, more than 44,000 Bangladeshis obtained Canadian permanent residency (PR), according to official Canadian immigration data. Most were ordinary migrants — professionals, students, and families seeking stability and opportunity. But a small, powerful subset took advantage of the now-defunct Investor Visa Program, which allowed wealthy foreigners to buy residency through financial investments.

Canadian authorities eventually scrapped the program in 2014, citing evidence that it had become a gateway for global elites to evade taxes and accountability. Yet by then, hundreds of well-connected Bangladeshis had already used it to move millions of dollars out of the country — sometimes through elaborate financial networks designed to conceal their tracks.

“Canada’s openness and its stable financial system made it very attractive,” said a South Asia–based anti-money-laundering analyst. “For many, it became the final stop — a place where stolen money could sleep safely.”

The word Begumpara — literally meaning “the colony of wives” — carries a strange irony. Its roots trace back to Mississauga, a city near Toronto’s Lake Ontario shoreline.

About a decade ago, Indian filmmaker Rashmi Lamba released a documentary titled Begumpura: The Wives’ Colony. The film depicted South Asian women who lived alone in Canada while their husbands worked abroad, often in the Middle East, sending money home to sustain their families. Their lives were lonely, their struggles poignant — a quiet testament to the sacrifices behind global migration.

After the documentary’s release, Canadian newspapers began using “Begumpura” to describe these communities of migrant wives. In Bangladesh, however, the term took on an entirely new meaning. It was repurposed into Begumpara — a sarcastic nickname for the extravagant neighborhoods where corrupt officials sent their own “begums” and children to live on embezzled public funds.

Today, “Begumpara” is shorthand in Bangladesh for a very specific image: gleaming Canadian mansions built on stolen money, far beyond the reach of domestic law.

Bangladesh Pratidin’s investigation revealed that few of these funds moved directly from Bangladesh to Canada. Instead, they were routed through third countries such as Singapore, Dubai, or the United Kingdom to obscure their origins. Once “cleaned,” the money was used to buy property, open businesses, or secure investment visas.

A name that has surfaced repeatedly in this context is Dr. Ahmad Kaikaus, a former Principal Secretary to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister. According to the report, Kaikaus obtained U.S. citizenship while on study leave, later concealing it to return to government service. He is alleged to have transferred embezzled funds to the United States, registered companies under his family’s names, and subsequently moved those assets to Canada.

Another example is Mahfuza Akter, a former senior executive at state-run Bangladesh Television (BTV), who reportedly sent her husband to Canada and later transferred illicit money in his name.

Real estate agents in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) say such cases, though difficult to prove, fit a visible pattern.

“We often see Bangladeshis buying homes worth one or two million dollars,” said a longtime realtor in Mississauga, requesting anonymity. “They don’t appear to have high-paying jobs here, and yet they purchase properties outright, sometimes in cash. It’s unusual.”

The Federal Immigrant Investor Program, which once attracted thousands of wealthy applicants from Asia and the Middle East, became a convenient channel for laundering money disguised as investment. The program required applicants to make a significant deposit or investment in Canada, after which they could obtain permanent residency.

But a 2014 audit found that investor immigrants typically contributed little to Canada’s economy. Many declared minimal taxable income, paying less in taxes than average Canadian workers. The government subsequently terminated the program — but by then, the damage was done.

For Bangladesh’s elites, the program’s peak years coincided with a turbulent political period at home. Between 2007 and 2014, during Bangladesh’s military-backed caretaker government and its sweeping anti-corruption campaign, many business figures quietly shifted their wealth abroad. Canada, with its strong property market and lax beneficial-ownership laws at the time, became a favored refuge.

“That’s when a lot of them came,” recalled a longtime Bangladeshi resident of Toronto. “They started with condos downtown, near the CN Tower, and later bought sprawling houses in places like Richmond Hill and Oakville. Some homes are occupied; others just sit empty. They wanted privacy — and distance.”

There is no registered neighborhood called Begumpara in Canada. Yet the phenomenon is undeniable. Real estate professionals estimate that at least 200 ultra-wealthy Bangladeshis own multimillion-dollar properties across the GTA. These homes, often held under company names or family trusts, create an illusion of legitimacy while shielding the true source of funds.

Some of these properties are clustered in Bellevue, Mississauga, and Markham, where luxury homes with 6,000–8,000 square feet of space sit alongside those of established Canadian professionals.

“They tend to keep to themselves,” said another realtor. “They don’t mix much with the larger Bangladeshi community here — especially not the working-class migrants.”

For Bangladesh, Begumpara has become a painful metaphor for inequality — a symbol of how power and privilege can buy escape from justice. For Canada, it raises uncomfortable questions about whether its real estate and immigration systems are still being exploited by the global wealthy to hide illicit gains.

Financial transparency experts warn that despite new rules requiring beneficial ownership disclosure, enforcement remains patchy. Canada’s real estate market, long accused of enabling “snow-washing” — the process of hiding dirty money under a veneer of respectability — remains vulnerable.

“Canada’s reputation as a clean, safe place is exactly what attracts dirty money,” said a Toronto-based financial crime researcher. “It’s not that the laws are bad — it’s that enforcement is slow, fragmented, and inconsistent.”

The contrast between the Begumpura of Rashmi Lamba’s film and the Begumpara of Bangladesh’s elite could not be sharper. The first was built on the honest labor of working-class migrant husbands. The second thrives on the stolen fortunes of a privileged few.

Both, however, tell a story about the global flow of money — one driven by necessity, the other by greed.

As the sun sets over Lake Ontario, Mississauga’s glass towers shimmer with reflections of aspiration — and, perhaps, of guilt. For Bangladesh, Begumpara is more than a place. It is a mirror of what happens when corruption crosses borders and finds comfort in the quiet streets of another nation.