$300M in illegal funds circulating the country

Publish date/time: 24/05/2013 [08:05]

Over $300 million has been circulating in the country over the past three years generated from money laundering, tax evasion and funding illegal activities.

Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority CEO Jitoko Tikolevu said they are investigating a number of cases.

Tikolevu believes with the introduction of the new ‘unexplained wealth’ provisions in the Proceeds of the Crime Amendment Decree of 2012 they will be able to deal with this issue.

He said they will now have additional powers to forfeit any undeclared income as unexplained wealth.

The Director of the Fiji Financial Intelligence Unit Razim Buksh said the new unexplained wealth provisions enables the court to confiscate any property or benefit that is owned or controlled by a person that cannot be reasonably explained in relation to the lawful income of that person.

Buksh added Police now can shorten the investigation time of such cases.

Commissioner of Police Brigadier General Ioane Naivalurua said they have committed substantial resources in investigating complex financial crimes as they have specialized units like the Anti-Money Laundering Investigation Unit, the Cyber-Crime Unit and the Transnational Crime Unit.

Stoey by: Ronal Deo & Akuila Cama