KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has raided what it called a “money laundering network” operating under the guise of a company and arrested seven person, said a spokesman for the agency on Monday.

He said that the Corporate Crime Circle of the FIA raided the office of the Moonlight Trading located on I. I. Chundrigar Road and detained seven persons.

The held suspects were identified as Sajid Ismail, Kalam Badshah, Saqib Ahmed, Raza, Zulfiqar, M. Nauman and M. Shafiq Khan.

Company owner Awwal Khan along with his accomplices Waris Khan and Taimoor Khan managed to escape.

The spokesman said that the company was running illegal hawala/hundi network in Karachi, Lahore and Quetta by facilitating local importers in making their overseas payments.

During investigations, extraordinary transactions worth Rs4.96 billion were detected from four different bank accounts of suspect Awwal Khan, who is the owner of the Moonlight Trading.

During the raid, the FIR seized Rs135,000, $2,000, Chinese Yuan 1,520, 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 suspect allegedly routed from his various accounts.

In addition, 47 different bank accounts used by the suspects for making payment were also detected.

The spokesman said that a case was registered and the held suspects were remanded in FIA custody till Jan 6.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2022