By Ejaz Arshad Cheema
RAWALPINDI: In a major crackdown against money launderers and those involved in illegal money exchange, the Federal investigation agency (FIA) on Monday arrested many people from Mall Plaza Saddar, recovering a huge amount of foreign currency, informed sources told Pakistan Today.
The detained accused have been identified as workers of Sheikh Iqbal, who owned Universal Currency Exchange and other money changers.
Interestingly, the FIA raiding teams had not raided the illegal money exchanges of Sheikh Kazim and Nauman Khan and brothers, apparently, due to their strong links with some corrupt officers of FIA, sources said.
According to sources, the teams of FIA Corporate Crime Circle Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Peshawar raided Mall Plaza Saddar and held many money changers and their workers involved in money laundering and exchange of money without the permission of the State Bank of Pakistan.
The raiding teams also recovered more than 60 million foreign and Pakistani currency from counters A and B while the computers, laptops and mobile phones of accused were also seized. The accused were shifted to FIA Police Station for further investigation, sources added.
A source disclosed to this scribe that it was the biggest raid of FIA on Mall Plaza ever as more than 60 officers and officials of federal watch dog took part in action against the illegal money changers and money launderers.
