Algeria financial intelligence unit receives 130 suspicious transaction reports

Algeria’s financial intelligence unit at the finance ministry unveiled130 suspicious money laundering cases as part of its operations to counter terror funding, unit chief said on Tuesday.

• “The figures seem to be high compared to those uncovered by the unit since it started its work in February 2008,”  Abdelmadjid Amghar said in a conference held in Algiers.
• “In 2008, there were 223 suspicious money laudering cases and an investigation was opened in this regard,”  he added.
• He did not reveal the names of the suspects, saying national and foreign companies must justify the sources of the money at their suspicious banking accounts.
• Amghar said the only case in which it was finally decided is that of the Algerian Kuwaiti Investment Fund. It comes back to 2006.
• Investigations showed that an official at the fund smuggled 7.8 million euros before flying to the UK.
• The Financial Intelligence Unit’s chief did not say whether the smuggled money had been recovered.