The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has revealed plans to hunt down suspected fraudsters using real estate for money laundering.
According to a lawyer with the commission in Benin, Chris Mishela, the commission is beaming its searchlight on such fraudsters going forward.
Mishela made the disclosure during a training for pressmen on effective reporting of economic and financial crimes.
He alleged that sources of all these new buildings seen springing up in places like Abuja and the like are illegal.
The EFFC lawyer submitted that “As it is, I am talking about Abuja, you see so many estates coming all over Abuja and more.
The sources of these funds are unlawful; the funds are illegally gotten either from government or from international crime that is used to launder through estate business.
So, EFCC is actually working to look into that dimension and the new money laundering Act has provided an opening for the government to look into the aspect of real estate as we have seen under the Act.
Real estate is one of the designated and non-designated professions that is also under our obligation, under the establishment to do a full disclosure.”
He explained that the objectives of the training was to keep journalists abreast of the framework of the new anti-money laundering Act 2022 and the role they were expected to play.
