Islamabad: The intelligence wing of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has unearthed money a Rs 1.4 billion money laundering scandal in the federal capital. The prime accused remains unnamed by the FBR.
Officials said that the money laundering came to the surface as a result of a vigorous campaign against money laundering by the Directorate General Intelligence & Investigation of the board’s Inland Revenue unit. The campaign has been targeting and investigating persons with suspicious bank transactions.
The financial monitoring unit has forwarded one Suspicious Transactions Report (STR) in one such case. The investigation began by examining the tax profile of the person under suspicion, which showed that he is a service provider with different business names. Moreover, he remained a filer from 2011 with minimal income declarations.
The person was confronted to explain the sources of suspicious bank transactions amounting to Rs. 1.1 billion. However, they failed to explain the suspicious activity, even though they were given plenty of opportunities to come clean.
Subsequently, another STR for suspicious bank credit entries to the tune of Rs 329 million was also received about an associate of the original accused. The taxpayer was confronted, and during the course of investigation admitted that he is working on behalf of the primary accused. The aforementioned suspected persons have been operating more than 50 bank accounts, local as well foreign currency, having suspicious transactions of more than Rs. 1.4 billion overall.
The examination of tax declarations showed that the tax contribution of the suspected persons is minimal. Complaint under section 8 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), 2010 has been filed against both the accused by the Directorate I&I IR Islamabad.
