SUVA – A major investigation by the police Cyber Crime Investigations Unit has started into a group of locals working in partnership with foreign nationals to launder money through a popular networking site.
The locals are allegedly trying to launder money by using Fiji as a transit point.
Police spokeswoman Theresa Ralogaivau said investigations started following reports lodged at the Suva, Nadi and Lautoka police stations between mid-July and early August.
Ralogaivau said police identified three suspects who live in the Nadi and Lautoka area.
“The CCI Unit has established that the three individuals communicated with foreign nationals who offered them money to carry out research on the services provided by the money transfer outlets in the country,” she said.
“The local individuals are offered a monetary commission by the foreign nationals to carry out this job.
“The foreign national sends the money, more than the commission amount, to the individual in Fiji who is asked to take out only his commission and send the balance to another individual who claims to be residing in Nigeria.”
Ralogaivau said there was strong suspicion that the money to pay for the commission and transferred out of Fiji had been illegally acquired by the foreign nationals.
The CCI Unit was working with officials from the Financial Intelligence Unit, commercial banks and Western Union Money Transfer in investigating the case.
