British MPs think they may have been targeted by a disinformation campaign focused on discrediting the man leading efforts to trace funds allegedly washed from Bangladesh into the UK.MPs raised the alarm after receiving e-mails about Ahsan Mansur, who was installed as the reserve bank guv of Bangladesh last year, after a student-led revolution swept away the autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina.Mansur has been in London seeking help from the federal government and private companies to locate billions of dollars in assets allegedly stolen by allies of the Hasina regime, some of which he believes may have been used to buy UK property.His go to has already been eclipsed by an intensifying row involving Hasinas niece, the former City minister Tulip Siddiq, who resigned from the role this year after Dhakas anti-corruption commission (ACC) filed a criminal case against her.
She has rejected all wrongdoing.Now MPs fear that Britains efforts to help Bangladesh could be additional clouded by an apparent defamation of character against Mansur including news short articles by fake journalists.MPs in the 47-strong all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on responsible tax and corruption got emails before a session on Monday with Mansur.
The sender, who claimed to be a reporter, sent links to a website called International Policy Digest, including articles about evident screens of wealth by Mansurs daughter and questioning why she was not being investigated.Neither of the posts expected authors appears to have any other profile as a reporter.
The Guardian discovered that pictures of them were actually stock images.Mansur and MPs in the group raised issues that the emails belonged to a concerted disinformation campaign.Mansur, a previous IMF official, who formerly lived and worked in Washington, stated he believed that individuals under investigation for cash laundering were attempting to diminish my track record and target me in various ways.He included that his daughter was a United States person who had little to do with Bangladesh.One APPG member, Rupa Huq, got a separate e-mail from a UK public relations company called Palatine Communications, also linking to International Policy Digest.The email stated that if Mansur was prepared to impugn the integrity of Tulip Siddiq then he and his family ought to also deal with scrutiny.Mansur stated he had never made any remarks about Siddiq.However, he is a key figure in the transitional government led by Mohammad Yunus, whose ACC accused Siddiq, in addition to her member of the family, amid an investigation into a 2013 deal with Russia that supposedly overinflated the price of a nuclear power plant.Huq stated it was highly unusual to receive such an email and compared it to demonstrations that have actually targeted her speaking about Bangladesh in parliament.
She said both were created to daunt and interfere with parliament and MPs normal work.Members of the APPG are understood to have actually referred the e-mails to parliamentary cyber security advisers, in addition to the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, which is examining disinformation.If it holds true that this interaction is an attempt to mislead UK political leaders when it pertains to an extremely serious corruption scandal, then I believe we must be very worried, said APPG member Phil Brickell.I prompt the pertinent parliamentary authorities to investigate completely we should get to the bottom of who spent for this, and why, in order to comprehend how we can best protect ourselves.A spokesperson for Palatine Communications stated: Our customer guidelines are confidential.
In sending the email in concern, we acted upon our own initiative.We have nothing to do with, and understand absolutely nothing of, the authorship of this article, but nor did we ever declare it represented the gospel reality.
Like many articles from numerous media outlets, it raises genuine concerns about the existing situation in Bangladesh that our company believe are worthy of MPs consideration.A spokesperson for International Policy Digest said the person who had in fact written the articles had wished to remain anonymous, adding that they were positive that the material was fairly accurate.