KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police have been cooperating with authorities overseas against a global online currency operator being probed in the US on allegations of massive money-laundering, a report said yesterday.
Malaysian police and the central bank have been monitoring the operation for two years, Fuzi Harun, a senior police official, was quoted as saying by The Star daily. “We are aware of the illegal operation, which also uses unlicensed money-exchangers to avoid any paper trail,” he said, adding the trail had been traced.
The US on Tuesday unveiled what it called the world’s largest money-laundering investigation, targeting the digital currency business Liberty Reserve. The Costa Rica-based entity, which handled huge sums of money outside the control of national governments, is charged with running a $6 billion money-laundering scheme and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. New York prosecutors said Liberty Reserve used pre-approved exchanges, typically unlicensed money-transmitting businesses “operating in countries without significant governmental money-laundering oversight or regulation, such as in Malaysia, Russia, Nigeria and Vietnam”. AFP
