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Khanani group launders billions of dollars: US report
[DAWN] A US State Department report released on Friday labelled the Altaf Khanani group as a money laundering organization and accused it of laundering billions of dollars for organised crime and terrorist outfits.US Assistant Secretary of State for Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs William R. Brownfield told a briefing in Washington that the State Department had delivered its 32nd International Narcotics Control Strategy Report to Congress on Wednesday. "It is, however, the first time that we are discussing and rolling this report out before the media in nine years," he added. In its section on Pakistain, the report notes: "The Altaf Khanani money laundering organization (Khanani MLO) is based in Pakistain. The group, which was designated a transnational organised crime group by the United States in November 2015, facilitates illicit money movement between, among others, Pakistain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), United States, UK, Canada, and Australia." The group "is responsible for laundering billions of dollars in organised crime proceeds annually. The Khanani MLO offers money laundering services to a diverse clientele, including Chinese, Colombian, and Mexican organised crime groups and individuals associated with designated terrorist organizations", the report adds. It describes Pakistain as strategically located country at the nexus of south, central and western Asia, with a coastline along the Arabian Sea. The report notes that Pakistain’s mostly non-existent borders with Afghanistan, Iran and China facilitate the smuggling of narcotics and contraband to overseas markets. "The country suffers from financial crimes associated with tax evasion, fraud, corruption, trade in counterfeit goods, contraband smuggling, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling/trafficking, terrorism and terrorist financing," the report points out. Posted by: Fred 2017-03-05 |
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