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| Bangladesh |
| Account details of top two leaders sought |
| 2007-04-26 |
| The central bank and National Board of Revenue (NBR) yesterday separately asked commercial banks for all banking information of former prime ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, and 83 other people including politicians, bureaucrats and former ministers. The Bangladesh Bank (BB) yesterday verbally asked the commercial banks for all banking information of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina, and their relatives. The central bank called the commercial banks early yesterday morning and asked them to provide all banking information of Khaleda Zia by mid-day yesterday. Then it again called the banks in the afternoon to ask for Sheikh Hasina's banking information and asked them to provide it by 11:00am today. Sources said the National Coordination Committee on Combating Corruption and Crime sought the information via the central bank. The information is being sought to substantiate the existing case against Sheikh Hasina, and to look for incriminating activities in Khaleda Zia's bank accounts in a bid to find out if a case could be brought against her, as the government's plan to send the two leaders into exiles hit snags in the past few days, sources said. NBR sent a list of 83 individuals including BNP Senior Joint Secretary General and Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman, former ministers Shahjahan Shiraj, Barrister Aminul Haque, BNP adviser Barkatullah Bulu, and a businessman and editor of the daily Janakantha Atiqullah Khan Masud. In a letter, NBR, the central authority for tax administration, asked the banks for the account statements of the listed persons for the period since July 2001 till the last printout in the audit trail. The banks were asked to provide the information by May 10. As per the directives, banks will have to come up with detailed information on transactions made through personal accounts, joint accounts, current accounts, foreign currency accounts, savings accounts, credit accounts, and credit cards. |
| Posted by:Fred |