British MPs believe they may have been targeted by a disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting Ahsan Mansur, the man leading efforts to trace funds allegedly laundered from Bangladesh into the UK.
They raised concerns after receiving emails about Mansur, who became Bangladesh’s central bank governor last year following a student-led revolution that ousted Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic government, The Guardian reports.
Mansur is in London seeking assistance from the government and private firms to track billions of dollars allegedly stolen by Hasina’s allies, some of which he believes were used to buy UK property. However, his visit has been overshadowed by a growing controversy involving Hasina’s niece, former City minister Tulip Siddiq, who resigned this year after Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a criminal case against her. She denies all allegations.
MPs now fear Britain’s role in assisting Bangladesh could be further complicated by an apparent smear campaign against Mansur, involving news articles published under fake journalist identities. Members of the 47-strong all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on responsible tax and corruption received emails before a Monday session with Mansur. The sender, claiming to be a journalist, shared links to articles on International Policy Digest that accused Mansur’s daughter of displaying wealth and questioned why she was not under investigation. The Guardian found that the supposed authors of these articles had no journalistic background, and their profile pictures were stock images.
Mansur and MPs on the committee expressed concerns that these emails were part of a coordinated disinformation effort. Mansur, a former IMF official who previously lived in Washington, said he believed those under investigation for money laundering were attempting to “damage my reputation and target me in various ways.” He added that his daughter, a US citizen, had little involvement in Bangladeshi affairs.
APPG member Rupa Huq also received a separate email from the UK public relations firm Palatine Communications, which linked to International Policy Digest. The email suggested that if Mansur was willing to “impugn the integrity of Tulip Siddiq,” he and his family should also face scrutiny. Mansur stated he had never made any comments about Siddiq.
However, he holds a key position in the transitional government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus, under whose administration the ACC accused Siddiq and her family in an investigation into a 2013 deal with Russia that allegedly inflated the cost of a nuclear power plant.
Huq described the emails as “highly unusual” and likened them to demonstrations targeting her speeches on Bangladesh in Parliament, saying both were “designed to intimidate and interfere with parliamentary work.”
It is understood that members of the APPG have referred the emails to parliamentary cybersecurity advisers and the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, which is investigating disinformation.
“If this communication is an attempt to mislead UK politicians about a serious corruption scandal, then we should be very concerned,” said APPG member Phil Brickell. “I urge the relevant parliamentary authorities to conduct a thorough investigation—we must uncover who funded this and why, to understand how best to protect ourselves.”
A spokesperson for Palatine Communications said, “Our client instructions are confidential. In sending the email in question, we acted on our own initiative. We have nothing to do with, and know nothing of, the authorship of this article, but nor did we ever claim it represented the gospel truth. Like numerous articles from many media outlets, it raises legitimate concerns about the current situation in Bangladesh that we believe are worthy of MPs’ consideration.”
A spokesperson for International Policy Digest stated that the actual author of the articles “wished to remain anonymous” and maintained that the content was “fairly accurate.”
Source: Daily Sun
Bd-pratidin English/ Jisan
