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Cash is still the most common type of instrument used in Fiji in financial transactions that are reported as ‘suspicious,’ according to Fiji’s Financial Intelligence Unit.
The FIU last week released its 2008 annual report, detailing suspected money laundering activities in Fiji.
“In 2008, 307 ‘suspicious transactions’ (STRs) out of the 479 STRs received by the FIU involved cash transactions while 85 STRs involved ‘other’ instrument types such as account to account transfers, credit transfers, credit cards and travelers cheques,” the report said.
Financial institutions in Fiji including banks and non-banking entities are legally required to report all suspicious funds and transactions including attempted transactions to the FIU.
In 2008, the FIU received a total of 479 such ‘suspicious transactions’ valued at just over $19 million. Of those, 412 were reported by commercial banks.
The FIU then acts on these information before determining whether they would require further investigations.
According to FIU director Razim Buksh, a bulk of STRs last year was related to tax evasion attempts.
“The FIU received 479 ‘suspicious transaction’ reports from banks as well as from non-bank financial institution from all across Fiji. The FIU disseminated over 200 intelligence reports to relevant law enforcement authorities, most of that to FIRCA for suspected tax evasion cases and to the Fiji Police Force for suspected money laundering and proceeds of crime cases,” Buksh said.
Out of the 479 STRs, 202 cases were further investigated, of which 131 were forwarded to the Fiji Islands Revenue and Customs Authority’s inland revenue services for possible tax related offences.
The FIU also noted that Fiji’s real estate sector was increasingly vulnerable to money laundering activities and deceptive land or property dealings, involving both locals and foreigners.
