ACC summons 7 businessmen for quizzing

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

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

Today, 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.

The first leak of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which was published in 2013, 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.

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.

Iceland's then prime minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson resigned after the matter came to light.