Livorno, 9 May 2024 – They would have used the data and identity of unsuspecting people or occasional customers to register them fictitious transactions of money transfer and thus guarantee the anonymity of the real executors of the remittances money.
This is the accusation made against two brothers of Pakistani origin, owners of four retail agencies money transfer in Livorno, Cecina and Grosseto, reported by the Livorno Financial Police following investigations which led to the discovery of 534 illicit money transfer operations for over 228,000 euros, out of 24,989 operations monitored for a total amount sent of 5,679,144.63 euros.
Possession and production of documents identification of fakesreceiving stolen goods, failure to comply with customer due diligence requirements established by the legislation on the prevention and combating of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering and terrorist financing, the crimes hypothesized in the context of the investigations initiated by the checks on the two brothers, owners of individual money transfer businesses “characterized by multiple and significant risk alerts”.
The analysis of current accounts and of the accounting and extra-accounting documentation acquired with local and IT searches at the four sales points, would then have allowed us to ascertain, as explained in a note from the Financial Police, «how the two brothers in order to guarantee the anonymity of their customers and evade the anti-money laundering legislation that affects money remittance services, had used the data and identity of unsuspecting people and/or occasional customers to whom they registered fictitious money transfer transactions”.
The same customers of the inspected agencies were interviewed who, in some cases, allegedly denied the transfers registered in their name, stating that they had never carried them out or had carried out only some of the operations that were in their name. To carry out the “fraud system”, false, stolen or lost documents were used, as well as the personal data of subjects who were completely unaware of the financial transactions registered to them. The two brothers were also reported to the Organization of Financial Agents and Credit Brokers for the consequent cessation of the activity.
