KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) has received over 400 money laundering cases from the country, a report of the agency revealed showing an increase in the number of such cases during 2020.

“The country reported 409 cases of money laundering during the outgoing year 2020,” a report of the FIA said adding that for the first time, even police authorities also referred the money laundering cases to the agency.

It said that the FIA received 289 cases of money laundering, referred by the police department. A meeting of the FIA was held in Karachi, where it was decided to register 105 cases against the referred cases.

The meeting also decided that a joint interrogation team (JIT) will probe the cases relating to money laundering. It further emerged that over Rs 30 billion was laundered abroad during the ongoing year.

“The FIA has registered 13 cases of illegal money transfer during 2020, which involves an amount of Rs 5 billion sent illegally from the country,” it said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the FIA is actively engaged in cracking down on the elements involved in money laundering activities.

On September 25, the FIA busted a money laundering network in Karachi during a raid conducted in a residential building situated on Shaheed-e-Millat road.

The FIA Sindh Director Munir Ahmed Shaikh told media that the intelligence agency bust a major money laundering network in Karachi. He said that a raid was carried out on a residential building over being spotted by an accused man, Abdul Jabbar Memon

The raiding team recovered a huge quantity of gold, foreign currency, documents of houses and vehicles. Shaikh detailed that the seized gold and foreign currencies including British Pound, Saudi Riyal, Qatari Dirham, US Dollar worth more than Rs150 million.

Moreover, the officials also confiscated other assets including a computer, registration book of vehicles and property records, he added.