Staff Reporter :
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has formed a three member committee to investigate involvement of Bangladeshi’s names that mentioned in the hacked Panama Papers.
Some Bangladeshis names have turned up in the recent Panama Papers leak regarding their involvement in a tax avoidance scheme.
“ACC has formed a three-member committee to investigate the matter,” a high official of ACC told The New Nation on Saturday preferring anonymity.
“The committee will be headed by SM Akhtar Hamid, Deputy Director of the ACC,” the ACC official added.
He said that the committee will work to find the names of Bangladeshi citizens in the hacked Panama Papers. It will also necessary information about their account and money kept there.
Further legal actions will be taken if necessary, he added.
Three new companies, 14 new addresses and a host of names with links to Bangladeshis were among the second list of the offshore entities that were published in May 2016 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Bangladesh Biman Inc, Islamic Solidarity Shipping Company Bangladesh, and Bangladesh Textile Agencies Ltd were the three new entities.
Mehboob Chowdhury, Bilkis Fatima Jesmin, Abul Bashar, M Selimuzzaman, Rudy Ben-Jamin, Yusuf Raihan Reza, Novera Chowdhury, Benzir Ahmed, Afzalur Rahman, Sudhir Mullick, Jiban Kumar Sarkar, and Nizam M Selim, among others, have been named in the Panama Papers with links to Bangladesh. This does not suggest any wrongdoing.
The leaks show that the names of the entities are largely foreign sounding but the addresses used are located in Bangladesh.
The addresses include Mrs Reem Tariq El Mutwalli of Rosabel Limited located in 65-66 Motijheel Commercial Area; Peter Scrancher of Paradise Isle Holdings Ltd of Raozan, Chittagong; Madina Smagulov of Forrell Real Estate Inc of Gulshan; Marcos Augusto De Moraes Lake Strand Corp in Gulshan; Diego Alfredo Giucci Schmidt of HMLS SA in Gulshan; Ekaterina Kunitskaya of Whitesand Corporation Ltd in Baridhara; and Wei Huahai of Kyde SCM Ltd located at Concord Tower, Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Bangladesh.
The addresses also include: Rafael Salomao Prado of RS Prado Ltd at Boro Moghbazar; Dr John Richard Forrest of Leparin Ltd in Mirpur; Lo Kit Yee Grace of Top Switch International Ltd in Banani; Aleksandr Zakharov of Direx Enterprises Ltd in Panchlaish, Chittagong; Huang Shu-Hui of Kuo Peng Ltd at Mirpur; Chiu Hsiao-Chun of Sun Speed Trading Ltd in Baridhara; and Tang Vung Kong Stephane of Kit Micro Co Ltd in Gulshan.
Eleven million documents held by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca have been passed to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung by “John Doe” more than a year ago. The German newspaper then shared them with the ICIJ. Some 107 media organisations in 76 countries have been analysing the documents.
