Teams of the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Islamabad Circle on Thursday reportedly raided two offices operated by currency exchange companies in F-10 Markaz and Blue Area as part of a wider crackdown on dollar hoarding and money laundering.
The teams seized records, foreign currency and millions of rupees in cash from the two outlets, as they had been operating without licence, FIA Director Fakhar Sultan said.
The currency seized from the exchange in Blue Area included 6,960 Saudi riyals, 1,000 euros, 2,640 pounds, Aus $3,100, US $5,030, 6,335 Emirati dirhams, 100 Qatari riyals, 401 yuan and Rs 2,483,700. Moreover, Rs 4.3 million were also seized from the F-10 Markaz exchange.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated against the owners of the two money exchange outlets, Sultan said.
The raid is latest in a series of similar actions targeting currency changers and those providing illicit money transfer services, and is aimed at curbing money laundering and related activities.
On April 12, the FIA had seized Rs 420 million from hundi and hawala dealers in Karachi.
“Another major exchange company, similar to Khanani and Kalia International (KKI), is operating out of Dubai,” an FIA official had said at the time, adding that the owner of the said company goes by his alias ‘Rangila’.
It is pertinent to mention here that the now-defunct KKI was one of the largest and most sophisticated exchange companies in Pakistan. It infamously ran a parallel money transfer system for the flight of capital out of the country through illegal hundi/hawala channels.
On April 10, the FIA had arrested a suspect from Rawalpindi and seized foreign currency worth Rs 1 million and local currency to the tune of more than Rs 4 million. An FIR was registered against the money changer and an investigation launched. In a similar crackdown the same day, an FIA team had impounded a vehicle from Peshawar Road in Rawalpindi and recovered foreign currency worth Rs 2.4 million from it.
