The graft watchdog has grilled the chairman and a director of United Group, two of the several Bangladeshis whose names appeared in the Panama Papers.
Officials of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) quizzed United Group Chairman Hasan Mahmud Raja and one of its Director Khandakar Moinul Ahsan at its office on Monday (Jul 16).
Speaking to media after emerging from the ACC office, Raja said, “They asked me about my personal and organizations’ wealth, income and expenditure.”
“The ACC has asked for my tax and VAT statements, which I‘ll submit later,” Raja said.
ACC Secretary Shamsul Arefin told reporters, “A three-member team working on an investigation into the Panama Papers scandal and quizzed the people concerned with the help of ACC’s intelligence as well as media reports.”
On investigation into the Panama Papers, he said, “We are running investigation by matching the names written on passports and appeared in the Papers.”
“We have primarily investigated several issues and quizzed the people based on our info,” Arefin said.
On Jul 8, the ACC summoned seven people, including United Group chairman and director, whose name appeared in the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers and told them to appear on Jul 16.
Three others, whose names appeared in Paradise Papers, will be questioned on Tuesday (Jul 17). They are Eric Johnson Andres, Farhana Yakibur Rahman and Mahtab Rahman.
The Panama and Paradise Papers are sets of millions of documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).