UK MPs caught in a ‘web of lies’ over Bangladesh cash hunt
British MPs smelled a rat Monday, and it reeked of disinformation. As they geared up to meet Ahsan Mansur—Bangladesh’s central bank governor, hot on the trail of billions allegedly looted from Dhaka to UK shores—they found their inboxes buzzing with suspect emails.
The target? Mansur himself, the man chasing Sheikh Hasina’s cronies. The game? Smear him, derail the probe, reports The Guardian.
Mansur, a former IMF hand tapped last year after a student uprising ousted Hasina’s iron grip, hit London to enlist help tracking stolen funds—some, he suspects, parked in British property.
But before his Monday sit-down with the 47-strong All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on responsible tax and corruption, MPs got a whiff of sabotage.
Emails from a “journalist” linked to International Policy Digest, a site peddling tales of Mansur’s daughter flaunting wealth—penned by ghost writers with stock-photo faces. “It’s a hit job,” Mansur fumed. “They’re after my reputation to shield their laundering.”
The plot thickened. MP Rupa Huq got a separate nudge from Palatine Communications, a UK PR outfit, tying Mansur to a spat with ex-City minister Tulip Siddiq—Hasina’s niece, now snared in a Bangladesh anti-corruption case she denies. “If he’s digging at Tulip, why not him?” the email prodded.
Mansur shot back: “I’ve said nothing about her.” Huq, no stranger to protests over her Bangladesh takes, called it “intimidation”—a bid to muzzle MPs. The APPG’s now tapped parliamentary cyber sleuths and the foreign affairs committee to sniff out the source.
“This stinks of a cover-up for a massive scandal,” APPG’s Phil Brickell warned. “Who’s bankrolling this? We need answers.” Palatine shrugged—“client’s secret, we just sent it”—while International Policy Digest claimed an anonymous scribe, vouching for “fairly accurate” dirt.
Mansur, unfazed, dismissed the noise: his daughter is a US citizen, far from Dhaka’s fray. Yet the stakes loom—billions siphoned, a Yunus-led probe pressing, and Siddiq’s nuclear deal shadow lurking.
