Panama Papers: Huge offshore accounts include Bangladeshis

The names of thousands of offshore companies were published on Monday night as the Panama Papers were released in full.

It represented a massive trove of data on the finances of the rich and powerful, Nick Allen in Washington said.

The names of more than 50 Bangladeshis have appeared in the Panama Papers and Offshore Leaks investigations.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) made information fully available on 200,000 companies, trusts and foundations set up in 21 jurisdictions.

Data was obtained from Panamanian legal firm Mossack Foneca, which said it was hacked.
The release allowed members of the public to search networks of offshore companies including Mossack Fonseca’s internal records of the true owners.

It excluded information and documents on bank accounts, phone numbers and emails. The ICIJ said it was putting the information online ‘in the public interest’.

Setting up an offshore company is not illegal and Mossack Fonseca said it observed rules requiring it to identify its clients.

But anti-poverty campaigners said shell companies can be used to shield money from taxation.

The data cache first emerged a month ago but the ICIJ has now decided to allow the public to search its database.

It showed offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders.

Previous reports based on the documents led to the resignation of Iceland’s  prime minister David Gunnlaugsson.

In the Bangladesh section of the documents, Zafarullah and wife Nilufer have been named as shareholders of Pathfinder Finance Limited and Hanseatic Limited in the British Virginia Islands.
The names of Bangla Trac owner Aminul Haque, and his sons Nazim Asadul Haque and Tarique Ekramul Haque have appeared in the leaked data.

So has that of former foreign minister M Morshed Khan’s brother-in-law Azmat Moyeen.

Some of them are Dilip Kumar Modi, Mullick Sudhir, Kazi Raihan Zafar, Md Yusuf Raihan Reza, Mahtabuddin Chowdhury, Benzir Ahmed, and Ishraq Ahmed.

IGW operator Cel Telecom CEO and former GP and Citycell executive Kafil HS Muyeed, broadband company AccessTEL owner Zain Omar, wireless internet provider Qubee’s owner Afzalur Rahman and Technomedia owner Sarkar Jiban Kumar have also been named.

The others include Novera Chowdhury, Syeda Samina Mirza, Ummeh Rubana, Bilkis Fatima Jesmin, and Salma Haque, Mobile-phone operator Citycell CEO Mehboob Chowdhury, Farhad Gani Mohammed, Md Abul Bashar, Nizam M Selim, Mohammad Moksedul Islam, Md Motazzaroul Islam, M Selimuzzaman, Syed Serajul Huq, FM Zubaidul Haque, Capt MA Jaul, Mohammad Shahed Masud, Khawza Sahadat Ullah, Mohammed Faisal Karim Khan, Zulfiquar Hyder, Mirza M Eyahia, Nazrul Islam, Mohammad Jahidul Islam, Jafer Ummeed Khan, and AFM Rahamatul Bari.