United Group Chairman Hasan Mahmood says he wasn’t named in Panama Papers

United Group Chairman Hasan Mahmood Raja has denied ‘being named’ in the Panama Papers adding it is nothing but a ‘conspiracy’ hatched by his business competitor that led to his harassment.

He spoke to reporters after facing an interrogation by the Anti-Corruption Commission at its headquarters on Monday.

Raja, one of the Bangladeshi businessmen named in the Panama Papers for money laundering, has been interrogated for three hours by the commission’s Deputy Director SMM Akhter Hamid.

The ACC will also interrogate three more directors from United Group—Khondaker Moinul Ahsan Shamim, Ahmed Ismail Hossain and Akhter Mahmood—over the same allegation.

“They wanted information about my personal issues and my company,” Raja said.

He claimed that he was not named in the Panama Papers adding the ACC is scrutinising everything.

“A newspaper reported that we were named in the Panama Papers. But why did they summon me now as the Panama Papers were published in 2016? Those named in the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers were summoned back then, but not me.”

“Our competitor has used a newspaper to publish our names. You can check the website. It is nothing but harassment.”  

He said the ACC wanted to see all income tax-related documents of United Group.

Apart from four directors of United Group, ACC sent separate summon on Jul 8 to three other businessmen named in the Paradise Papers.

The three named in Paradise Papers are—Eric Johan Anders Wilson of WMV Limited, Farhan Aqebur Rahman of Intrepid Group and Mahtaba Rahman of Selcon Shipping Company. The interrogation has been set for Tuesday, said ACC spokesman Pranab Bhattacharya.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists or ICIJ had published a large number of documents from the law firm Mossack Fonseca in Panama in 2016, known as Panama Papers.

The dossier exposed how rich and powerful people are escaping taxes and making money through offshore companies.

The ACC had declared a plan to probe at least one and a half dozen Bangladeshis named in the Panama Papers. The commission formed a three-member investigation team.

Before the investigation was over, the ICIJ had published 10.3 million of clients’ documents from Applebee, a law firm in Bermuda towards the end of 2017.

Controversial businessman Moosa Bin Shamsher was among the Bangladeshis with alleged links to money laundering.

“We hope there will be an investigation into money laundering and loan defaults to bring the offenders to justice. Why can’t we conduct an investigation based on the Panama Papers when Pakistan is doing the same,” Social Welfare Minister Rashed Khan Menon had said in parliament.

The ACC formed a special team headed by SMM Akhter Hamid Bhuiyan to investigate those named in the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers and team members were collecting primary information regarding their assets, an ACC official had toldbdnews24.com in February.

“All of those 15 named in Panama Papers have been summoned but only nine of them showed up and gave statements to the commission. Some of them have become citizens of other countries. All of their whereabouts are being scrutinised.”

The ACC will investigate incomes of those named in the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers and any information on money laundering or other offences will be sent to Bangladesh Bank, CID or the National Board of Revenue for taking necessary measures, ACC chief Iqbal Mahmood had told bdnews24.com.