FIA seizes Rs900m foreign currencies from illegal money changer

ISLAMABAD: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Commercial Banking Circle Islamabad has raided an illegal money changer in Gujar Khan city and seized over Rs900 million local and foreign currencies in cash, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

According to the FIA, the employees of a legal currency exchange ‘Easy Exchange’ were found involved in illegal currency trade. The employees were allegedly selling foreign currencies on illegal counters established at another locality.

The FIA spokesperson said that a cashier of Easy Exchange namely Abdul Basir was illegally running the counter, whereas, another employee was busy doing out-of-book illegal activity after closing the system of the currency exchange on Sunday.

The confiscated foreign currencies including US dollars, British Pounds, Euros, Malaysian Ringgits, Qatari Riyals and others. Moreover, the FIA also seized the out-of-book currency from the branch of the money changer.

In February, the concerned authorities had adopted a new mechanism for seized foreign currencies. The seized foreign currency will be deposited into the government bank account by the law enforcement agencies (LEAs).

After verification of the currency, it will be deposited to the government’s account in the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP). The mechanism was adopted to make appropriate arrangements for the foreign currency.