Reports totalling suspected tainted proceeds of $10 million were given to law enforcement agencies last year by FIU

The Fiji Financial Intelligence Unit which is the country's lead agency for preventing and detecting money laundering disseminated 84 intelligence reports totalling suspected tainted proceeds of $10million to various law enforcement agencies last year.

They also provided investigative assistance on 67 entities and 318 individuals and helped with 89 due diligence and background checks on 99 entities and 162 individuals.

There were also 209 direct data searches by officers of the Financial Intelligence Unit partner agencies on several suspected individuals and entities.

According to the Fiji Financial Intelligence Unit, this resulted in the successful investigation of 19 border currency smuggling cases, one money laundering conviction, several successful investigations of cases on tax evasion, corruption, proceeds of crime, online scam, unexplained wealth and other predicate crime investigations in 2019.

Last year, the unit received 622 suspicious transaction reports, 1,515, 681 electronic fund transfer reports, 794,044 cash transaction reports and 1,102 border currency reports.

FIU Director Razim Buksh says their database contains more than 16 million financial transaction information.

He says last year they also continued engagement with lawyers, accountants and real estate agents and conducted onsite examinations to ensure that the requirements under the law are effectively implemented.