KARACHI: The Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has detected a number of suspicious transactions, and the reports in this regard have been forwarded to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

A suspicious transaction report (STR) generated by Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) has analyzed transactions in respect of Naina & Hasan Ali Dharani Foundation, which is being run by Narisa Dharani and Naina Hasan Ali Dharani. According to STR, high volume of funds are being received in the Naina & Hasan Ali Dharani Foundation’s account in shape of cash based transactions on continuous basis which are not in accordance with the nature and business profile of the said Foundation.

Further, series of cash deposit transactions in a structured manner have also been conducted in the account even on a single day, thus raising suspicion about the source, beneficial ownership and use of funds.

A transaction is considered suspicious, inter alia, if there are reasons to suspect, after having examined the available facts including the background and possible purpose of the transaction, that the transaction has no apparent lawful purpose.

Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) has also reported Muhammad Ramzan Managing Director of Ramzan and Sons Pvt Ltd, which is involved in the business of construction. According to the report, the suspect purchased US Dollars in short span of time and did repeated currency exchange transactions in structured manner. Muhammad Ramzan is a non-filer and is maintaining 33 accounts including business accounts and personal accounts at different banks.

Farooq Jhangda was reported as running a business of imports/exports. Later it was found from public database that he is owner of Zainab Garments Pvt Ltd, which manufactures, imports and exports textile products.

Farooq Jhangda has done multiple structured transactions of currency exchange to avoid cash transaction report (CTR) threshold of Rs2.0 million for cash transactions and SBP threshold of $35,000 for purchase of foreign currency in cash.

FMU has also reported Saleem Khan Shafi and Adnan Ali Yousaf for suspicious transactions. Shafi is an overseas national and running a business named SKS Laser Processing Ltd in United Kingdom while Adnan Ali is in construction business and made repeated currency exchange transactions and purchased high volume of Pound Sterling. The suspects are maintaining multiple joint accounts at different banks, where high value cash transactions were observed.

The reports have been forwarded to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), however no action has been initiated in this regard so far.