Revenue department and various intelligence agencies in Bangladesh are actively investigating the huge irregularities, tax evasion and illegal money laundering of a local organizer named Antor Showbiz, which organized Shah Rukh Khan Night in Bangladesh recently.
Mumbai's Bollywood super-star Shah Rukh Khan was shown to have been paid US$ 72,000 only by the Bangladeshi event management company though the organizers paid approximately US$ 120,000 only to Jet Airways for chartering their aircraft which flew Shah Rukh Khan and members of his entourage along with Bollywood star Rani Mukherji, Arjun Rampal, Eisha Kopikar and Shefali Jariwala. According to sources, Shah Rukh Khan takes US$ 500,000 only for his appearance in any show in the world, which is excluding of air fare as well as accommodation and other expenses to be borne by the organizers. Because of special persuasion and lobbying of family friend of Shah Rukh Khan, he agreed to accept the Dhaka show for US$ 400,000, while Ranu Mukherji received US$ 100,000, Eisha Kopikar US$ 30,000, Arjun Rampal US$ 30,000 and Shefali Jariwala US$ 15,000. In this case, the total amount paid to the artistes from India is US$ 575,000. In addition, US$ 120,000 was paid to Jet Airways for chartering a round-trip flight. So the total amount trafficked outside Bangladesh through unofficial channel was exceeding US$ 650,000.
Antor Showbiz spent approximately US$ 75,000 for hotel and other expenses for the foreign artistes, while it spent US$ 40,000 for paying rent to Army Stadium as well as other costs of erecting the dais and hiring sound equipment and lights.
Though the organizers were supposed to sell 15,000 tickets for the show, it is well recorded and even the owner of Antor Showbiz, Swapan Chowdhury acknowledged in public that more than 27,000 tickets were already sold. From this sale, Antor Showbiz collected US$ 1.4 million. Furthermore, it received US$ 715,000 from Boishaki TV and Destiny Group; US$ 50,000 from Golden World; US$ 50,000 from Airtel; US$ 40,000 from Pepsi, US$ 25,000 from Igloo Ice Cream, US$ 25,000 from Shajib Group and few more thousands of dollars from various small sponsors. The total amount of gross income for this event was more than US$ 2.3 million.
In this case, Antor Showbiz made a net profit of US$ 1.5 million from the Shah Rukh Khan Night.
A highly placed source within National Board of Revenue in Bangladesh said Antor Showbiz has so far paid an amount of US$ 192,142 only, while the minimum amount of evaded taxes would be at least US$ 500,000.
Right after the Shah Rukh Khan Night, Antor Showbiz declared to Bangladeshi media that it already has signed necessary agreement with internationally known pop star Shakira, who would visit Bangladesh during February 2011. Now, sensing the possible legal actions taken by Bangladeshi authorities, Swapan Chowdhury and his family members are planning to leave Bangladesh secretly to avert serious legal complications.
It may be mentioned here that, Swapan Chowdhury and his wife Nasrin Chowdhury may face imprisonment for money laundering as well as evading taxes.
http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1235/scandalous-shah-rukh-khan-night
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