Iran busts ring involved in money laundering activities

EghtesadOnline: The head of MEAF's Financial Intelligence Unit said on Sunday that members of the large ring had provided services to money launderers in Iran with a focus on the country’s lucrative mobile phone market.

Hadi Khani said that the group had a turnover of over 500 trillion rials (more than $500 million) when the Iranian police discovered its activities.

Khani said members of the group had mostly used bank accounts opened by the needy and vulnerable people in Iran to launder money, according to Press TV. 

“They allowed business owners in the mobile phone market and mobile phone importers to use these fake accounts to make it impossible for authorities to track down their tax information,” he said.

The official said that a bank account of a poor woman who was exploited by the group had a turnover of 40 trillion rials (nearly $4.5 million) when it was tracked down by the police, adding that the same account had a monthly transaction balance of only 30 million rials in 2020.

Iran has toughened its crackdown on money laundering in recent years amid efforts to fight tax evasion activities that cost the government billions of dollars each year.

The crackdown is also aimed at creating more discipline in Iran’s banking and financial sector as the country seeks to join international organizations fighting money laundering and financial crimes.

Khani said that MEAF has been investigating 37 major money-laundering cases in recent months, adding that authorities have examined nearly 2,300 bank accounts as part of the investigation.  

He also said the Iranian police have become increasingly involved in financial crime probes in the country in recent months. / Mehr