The Economic and the Financial Crime Commission has said that antigrate agency with searchlight on suspects fraudster using real estate for laundering money.
Chris Mishela, a lawyer with commission, reveal this in Benin State during a training for journalists on effective reporting of economic and financial crimes.
According to Chris which said one of the objectives of the training is to keep journalists apprise of the framework of the new fraudster anti-money laundering Act 2022 and the roles that they are expected to play.
” Because as it is, I’m talking about Abuja directly, So many estate that is coming all over Abuja now and more.
“Because must sources of these funds are unlawful; the funds are illicit gotten either from International crimes or Government that is used to built for estate business.
“So therefore, EFCC is actually working to look towards that direction and the new money laundering Act has provided an opening for government to look into the feature of real estate as we has seen under the Act.
Real estate could be one of the designated and non-designated professions that is also under our duty, under the establishment to do a full disclosure.
“It is survey that is going no; not that we have identified any specific entity to these direction of crime, but we are working to unravel what those area are”, he said.
The EFCC official, who spelt out the roles and responsibilities that individual and corporate organisations were expected to play under the new Act, “it’s now a crime to make cash or receive cash payment that is above N5 millions“.
He said they need to make the public aware of the expanded scope of the new money laundering ( Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 as against the repealed money laundering prohibition Act 2011 necessitated the workshop.
He noted that though ignorance it was not an excuse in law, the commission felt individual and corporate bodies include the media should be brought to the note about the law.
In her presentation, Mr Dele Oyewale, the assistant commander, public affairs unite of EFCC, Abuja, including tasked journalists on investigation reporting, to provide leads for the commission.
He said investigation reporting, was the pride of the journalism a profession, calling for participants to indulge in journalism of penetration, intensification, exploration and exhaustive inquirys.
Mrs Oluwakemi Olawoyin the head, cyber crime unit in EFCC, Benin make a presentation on risks and benefits associated with digital payment system, where she highlighted tactics for safe transaction on the various e-business platforms.