Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) director Razim Buksh says Digicel’s MyCash and Vodafone’s M-PAiSA are additional opportunities for criminals to conduct illicit crimes or place illicit wealth in accounts.
Mr Buksh highlighted this during a submission to the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs of their 2021/2022 annual report on Monday.
“Integration is actually the most difficult part where the criminal, after a successful placement, would want to give the appearance of criminal derived wealth as if it has been derived from a clean or in a legitimate way,” he said.
“This can be in the way of investing in real estate.
“We have a case study, how one particular criminal from abroad wanted to launder his proceeds in Fiji by expensive assets or where we suspect the lifestyle of this particular person isn’t commensurate with their earning capacity.”
Mr Buksh said it would be a signal that the money had been integrated and part or all the proceeds was dirty money or money subject to investigation for proceeds of crime.
