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Published : 18 Dec 2014, 03:55 PM
"I made all my money abroad."
"It is claimed that I have siphoned off $7 billion abroad. So much money cannot be made in this country, no one has or ever will. I earned all this money in foreign countries," he told reporters after the ACC questioned him on Thursday.
According to the ACC, the grilling was meant to check on allegations of money laundering levelled against Shamsher.
On Dec 4, the corruption watchdog had written to him to appear before the court.
Shamser's eight-vehicle motorcade arrived at the ACC headquarters around 9am on Thursday. He was accompanied by bodyguards in the other seven cars.
ACC Deputy Director (public relations) Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya said the questioning began at 10am and it was conducted by Senior Deputy Director Mir Jainul Abedin.
It lasted for three hours and around 1.30pm Shamser spoke to the media.
"The ACC has summoned me and being a law abiding citizen, I am here."
Speaking on the allegations against him, the billionaire said:"There's a history behind every rumor, the truth surfaces when that history is analysed."
An ACC meeting on Nov 3 decided to probe Shamsher after a report by Business Asia said he had $ 7 billion stashed away at a Swiss bank.
Though Shamser denied the allegations of siphoning off money, he admitted to have money in the Swiss Bank.
"If the money stuck at the Swiss Bank can be recovered, then I would spend it for the Padma Bridge project and other social ventures for building a prosperous Bangladesh," he said.
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 labour exports through the DATCO Group he founded in 1974, but is better known in foreign media for his alleged ties to weapons trade.
He attracted huge media attention after offering the Labour Party and Tony Blair 5 million pounds as campaign donation during UK’s 1997 general elections.
The ACC, in 2011, had decided to probe Shamsher after another newspaper report said he had Tk 510 billion in Swiss banks, but not much progress was made on that.
