Moosa Bin Shamsher submits wealth statement to ACC

Lawyers of business tycoon Moosa bin Shamsher, who is under the anti-graft watchdog’s scanner since late last year, has submitted his wealth statement.

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) chief M Shahabuddin Chuppu confirmed the submission on Sunday. “We cannot reveal the details yet... we will verify the information he gave and will be able to assess how wealthy he is after that.”

An ACC meeting on Nov 3 decided to probe Shamsher after a report by Business Asia said he had $7 billion stashed away in a Swiss Bank account.

“We initially had information that he had $7 billion stuck in the account. Later, he told us himself of another $5 billion, taking the total amount to $12 billion,” an ACC officials told bdnews24.com requesting anonymity.

“However, he did not give us documents of the account when we asked for them. So we were kind of forced into asking for his wealth details.”

On May 19, the  commission gave Shamsher seven days to submit his wealth details. However, the tycoon asked for more time and the deadline was extended to June 7.

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.