Home Remittances for Terrorism Financing
Mr. A opened PKR account with ABC Bank as Muhtamim (Caretaker) in the name of a religious school in March 1984. Mr. A was declared deceased on 19-08-2011 in the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death produced by the executive body of the said Maderesa to the Bank. Later on, Mr. B was nominated as the new Muhtamin to run the affairs of the religious school by its executive body in 2011. The account was reportedly opened to deposit funds and receive home remittances therein.
Reportedly, the Madresa under discussion was registered with the Registrar of Firms, under Societies Registration Act, 1860 under Registration No. 202 issued on 19-Jul-1980. The main purpose of the Madresa was to provide Islamic education and life necessities to the students of the aforesaid Madresah.
The reporting bank noted that the transactions in the Madresa account did not make any economic and business sense and did not commensurate with the profile of the customer. The subject customer has been receiving heavy amount of frequent inward remittances in the account with the purpose “charity” as mentioned on the swift messages. The funds were later on withdrawn from the account in cash or transfers. In three years, inward remittances amounting to Rs. 63,895,353/- had been received in the account.
On analysis of the statement of the account, it was observed that high value home remittances were received in the Madresa account in different periods of time. The remittances were sent by “XYZ” charity organization located in a Middle Eastern country. It operates as an independent body under the supervision of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. There was no adverse information on the public domain about the XYZ organization; however, the utilization of the funds received in the account of Madresa was unknown.
In addition to the account, the Muhtamim of the Madresa Mr. B was also maintaining several other accounts with ABC Bank wherein high value transactions with unrelated counterparties were conducted which did not make any economic sense.
In view of the foregoing, the financial intelligence was shared with FIA on account of TF/ground check under the provision of AML Act, 2010 for the measure deemed appropriate.