'Pandora Papers' names should not be discussed'

 
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said on Wednesday that it will not be wise for him to discuss Bangladeshi businessmen named by the Pandora Papers. He said the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) submitted names of 42 persons to the High Court. Now the matters remain pending with the court.

"So, I should not discuss the matter while the issue is pending with the court", he told reporters while responding to a question after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase (CCPA) on Wednesday, UNB reports.

Eight Bangladeshis and five addresses with links to Bangladesh were included in the latest document released under the Pandora Papers late Monday night; all of them owned business establishments in the British Virgin Islands.

The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021.

The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 35 world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers, and heads of state as well as more than 100 billionaires, celebrities, and business leaders.

Mohammad Bhai, Sakina Miraly, Nihad Kabir, Anita Rani Bhowmik, Islam Manzurul, Walter Pollak, Daniel Ernesto Iubatti and Sayedul Huda Chowdhury are named on the latest list. The finance minister said some 43 names of individuals and firms were submitted to the court.

"Gradually more names will be submitted", he added.

Meanwhile, the ICIJ said that the names being mentioned on the list do not necessarily mean they were involved in any illegal activities.

The leaks show that the names of the entities are largely foreign sounding but the addresses used are located in Bangladesh.

The "Pandora Papers" investigation -- involving some 600 journalists from media including The Washington Post, the BBC and The Guardian -- is based on the leak of documents from 14 financial services companies around the world.