KARACHI
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Monday busted a network of people involved in the illegal hawala and hundi business and arrested seven suspects.
According to a spokesperson, the action was taken by the Corporate Crime Circle team of FIA that raided Moonlight Trading office on II Chundrigarh Road in Karachi. The office was running illegal hawala/hundi network by facilitating local importers in overseas payments.
The FIA recovered cash Rs1,350,00, US $2,000, Chinese yuan 1,520, TT receipts, fake receipts, mobile phones, laptops, transport bills, letterheads of various dummy companies, bank account details of dummy companies, and deposit/credit slips of millions of rupees which the accused routed from his various accounts and others during the raid. In addition, 47 different bank accounts have also come on record which was used by the accused of payment of Hawala/Hundi.
The network was involved in illegal money trade in Karachi, Lahore and Quetta. The detained suspects were identified as Sajid Ismail, Kalam Badshah, Saqib Ahmed, Raza, Zulfiqar Ali, Nauman, and Shafiq.
The spokesperson revealed that a whopping Rs4.96 billion worth of transactions were carried out through four bank accounts owned by Waris Khan, the owner of a private firm. Three members of the network, Awal Khan, Waris and Taimur Khan, are on the run.
An FIR has been registered against the suspects. The FIA has obtained physical remand of the arrested suspects until January 6 for investigation.
