Panama Papers: ACC yet to complete enquiry
Fifteen months have elapsed, but the Anti-Corruption Commission has yet to complete their inquiry into the 11 names that cropped up in the Panama Papers in connection with offshore entities with roots in Bangladesh.
ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmud yesterday said they were working to collect information about the individuals concerned but do not have enough to proceed.
The issue of Panama Papers once again came to the fore after the Pakistani Supreme Court on Friday disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from office over undeclared assets, leading to his resignation.
The court also ordered a criminal probe into the Sharif family over allegations stemming from the Panama Papers' leaks regarding international offshore companies.
On April 7, 2016, ACC formed a committee to find whether there were mentions of any Bangladeshi citizen with offshore accounts in the leaked Panama Papers.
The three-member committee led by ACC Deputy Director SM Akhtar Hamid Bhuiyan was tasked with gathering detailed information about the accounts opened there by any Bangladeshi citizens named in the documents.
On May 10, 2016, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published the second list of the offshore entities and highlighted three new companies, 14 new addresses and a host of names with links to Bangladesh.
The data, collated by the ICIJ, comes from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca and includes information about companies, trusts, foundations and funds incorporated in 21 tax havens. The leak caused a concentrated global scrutiny into offshore banking and tax evasions.
When contacted, Akhtar Hamid declined to make any comment.
Asked about the delay, ACC Chairman, Iqbal Mahmud, said, “We are waiting to get complete information [from other countries] about them through two channels.”
He said the ACC has sent a Mutual Legal Assistance Request to different countries seeking information about the 11 persons and got information about some of them from the UK and USA.
“We also sought information through the Foreign Ministry but we did not get an adequate response yet,” he said adding, “The information we received so far is not enough to proceed further.”
Asked how much time it would take to collect the full information, he said, “It is difficult to tell as getting information depends on the response from other countries.”
Queried about the next steps, he said, “Four agencies are working in the anti-money laundering issue. After receiving information, we will scrutinise those and determine which agency will work on it,” he said.
Contacted, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director, Transparency International Bangladesh, said, “Although one has to wait to see. . . the end result, including the political fallout of the Nawaz Sharif's case, countries including Bangladesh, bedevilled by illicit accumulation and transfer of corrupt money, have much to take home.
To say the least, it reemphasized the importance of the political demand and commitment on the one hand and institutional strength and effectiveness on the other, to ensure accountability irrespective of status and identify of the corrupt.”
“Among many reasons for lack of progress in ACC's efforts to bring to justice Bangladeshi nationals involved in illicit financial transfers including those who figured in Panama Papers is the highly sophisticated nature of the crime and complex processes involved in collecting evidence that ACC may not yet be fully prepared,” he said.
“More importantly, there has hardly been any collaborative effort on the part of other relevant institutions, especially Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit of Bangladesh Bank, Attorney General's Office, National Bureau of Revenue and the ACC to take full advantage of Mutual Legal Assistance under UN Convention against Corruption,” he added.
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