The United Kingdom's National Crime Agency (NCA) has frozen properties owned by former land minister and a key Awami League leader Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed, who is under investigation for money laundering by Bangladeshi authorities, reports Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit (I-Unit)  

Citing NCA sources, the report states that the move follows legal requests from Bangladesh authorities to take action against assets owned by Chowdhury.

"We can confirm that the NCA has secured freezing orders against a number of properties as part of an ongoing civil investigation," an NCA spokesperson is quoted to have told AJ's I-Unit.

The property freeze means, in effect, that the assets cannot be sold by Chowdhury, it adds.

The action by the NCA, often dubbed "Britain's FBI", coincided with this week's visit to London by Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus.

Saifuzzaman is accused of amassing immense wealth illegally. According to an AJ report published last year, the 56-year-old former land minister owns more than 350 properties in the UK.  

"While the full extent of the NCA's action is not yet understood, the I-Unit can disclose that Chowdhury's luxury home in St John's Wood, London, is part of the asset freeze," the report states.

The development comes just weeks after the agency froze two London properties owned by Ahmed Shayan Fazlur Rahman, son of Salman F Rahman, who is currently in jail in Dhaka.