ACC summons Moosa bin Shamsher

The Anti Corruption Commission has summoned Bangladesh business tycoon Moosa bin Shamsher to probe if he has illegal wealth.

Letters have been sent to his Gulshan home and the DATCO Group chief’s office in Banani, said ACC Deputy Director Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya on Thursday.

The commission in a meeting decided to probe Shamsher on Nov 3 after a report by Business Asia said he had $ 7 billion stashed away at a Swiss bank.

Known to foreign media as ‘Bangladesh’s prince’, the businessman is related by marriage to Awami League’s presidium member Sheikh Fazlul Selim. His eldest son Bobby Hajjaj is special advisor to Jatiya Party chief HM Ershad.

Shamsher, from Faridpur, began trading in manpower through the DATCO Group he founded in 1974, but is better known in foreign media for his alleged ties to weapons trade.

The ACC, in 2011, had decided to probe Shamsher after another newspaper report said he had Tk 510 billion in Swiss banks, but the move soon lost pace.