ACC summons seven over Panama, Paradise Papers

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday summoned seven businessmen, including a foreigner, for quizzing as their names appeared in the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers leaks.

The ACC is enquiring them for amassing wealth beyond known source of income, and laundering money. Earlier, ACC quizzed at least 10 persons as their names appeared in those leaked documents.

Yesterday, ACC in two separate letters requested the businessmen to appear on July 16 and July 17, said ACC's Public Relations Officer Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya.

In an emergency meeting with ACC directors general and secretary, and director of the detective unit on June 20, ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmood directed officials to come up with reports by June 30 of the ongoing investigations into persons whose names appeared in the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers leaks.

The first leak of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, known infamously as the Panama Papers, was published in 2013 and contained names of 32 Bangladeshis.

In 2016, the ICIJ named three new companies, 14 new addresses and 24 individuals with links to Bangladesh on its second list of leaks, nicknamed the Paradise Papers.

This ICIJ database contains information on almost 320,000 offshore entities that are part of the Panama Papers and the Offshore Leaks investigations. The data covers nearly 40 years up to the end of 2015, and links to people and companies in more than 200 countries and territories.

Among those whose affairs have come under scrutiny include former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine and Mauricio Macri of Argentina, along with Argentinean football star Lionel Messi, Hong Kong film legend Jackie Chan and Spanish movie director Pedro Almodovar.