Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will begin to go after suspected fraudsters using real estate for money laundering, a lawye of the commissionm, Chris Mishela, gave the hint in Benin, the Edo capital, at a training for journalists on effective reporting of economic and financial crimes.
Mishela said one of 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.
The lawyer said the Money Laundering Act had provided an opening for the government to look into the aspect of real estate ownership.
“You see so many estates coming all over Abuja and more; the sources of these funds are unlawful,” Mishela noted.
According to the legal practitioner, most of the funds used to buy land or houses are illegally gotten either from the government or from international crime.
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“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.
“Not that we have identified any specific entity to these proceeds of crime, but we are working to unravel what those areas are,” the lawyer explained.
Mishela further advised the public to be aware of the scope of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 as against the repealed Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011.