Billionaires, world leaders, sports icons, rock stars and government officials have stashed billions of dollars in secret offshore accounts, reveals an investigation conducted by the Washington DC-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The “Pandora Papers” investigation — involving some 650 journalists from the media including The Washington Post, The BBC and The Guardian — is based on the leak of some 12 million documents from 14 financial services companies that detail the existence of over 29,000 offshore accounts around the world. The massive leak of financial documents that was published on Sunday tied world leaders to secret stores of wealth, including King Abdullah 11 of Jordan, ex-UK PM Tony Blair and his wife, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Besides, names of political leaders and big businesses of India, Pakistan and Nepal were also mentioned in the report, while Bangladesh’s name has not been included in the list yet.
However, the findings of the documents, which will be rolled out in a series of stories over the next week, expose the secret offshore finances of about three dozen world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers, and heads of state. The finances of about 100 billionaires, people of extreme wealth and 300 public officials are also included in the trove. This time Panama feared the publication of the papers as it could again taint its reputation, which was seriously damaged by the “Panama Papers” scandal in 2016. Since then, Panama has carried out various legal reforms to strengthen banking controls and penalise tax evasion with jail time. “The Panama today is nothing like the Panama of 2016,” stated the government.
According to reports, Russia has rejected the Pandora Papers report implicating President Putin while Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has pledged investigation into reported financial secrets of his political allies. Although the inclusion of Bangladeshi businessmen has been hinted at, none has been named so far. Many Bangladesh political leaders from top to mid-level, business leaders and government officials are learned to have secured their future in overseas settlements by winning citizenship for their families through investment visas or business migration schemes in Canada, Malaysia, Singapore and other countries. They bought properties in those countries mostly with ill-gotten money, which is being siphoned off from Bangladesh through unauthorised financial channels. Sources said, there are over 150 properties owned by corrupt politicians from Bangladesh alone in Toronto city of Canada. We welcome the Pandora Papers exposing shady deals of politicians, businessmen and officials all over the world. Such periodic disclosure of dishonesty by influential people would hopefully create pressure on others to refrain from engaging in corrupt deals.
