FIA cracks down on luxury car showrooms in Karachi over money laundering suspicions

On Thursday, the Commercial Banking Circle team of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) executed a seizure of four high-end vehicles at a Karachi-based car showroom.

The owner of the establishment was unable to furnish credible documentation regarding the vehicles’ importation, raising suspicions of their involvement in a trade-based money laundering operation.

The FIA has embarked on a comprehensive inquiry into the proprietors of car showrooms in Karachi, honing in on trade-based money laundering—an illicit stratagem that exploits international trade transactions as a conduit for unlawful financial transfers.

In a recent enforcement operation, the FIA confiscated a quartet of opulent automobiles, including a Land Cruiser and an Audi, from a showroom situated on Khalid bin Waleed Road. Despite repeated requests, the showroom owner failed to comply with the FIA’s summons.

The agency has further dispatched notifications to the proprietors of thirteen other car showrooms in Karachi, intensifying its scrutiny of this matter.

Earlier in the week, the FIA conducted a search at the residence of a businessman by the name of Aziz Seekha in Karachi. This operation yielded a substantial haul of both foreign and Pakistani currency, alongside prize bonds, underscoring the agency’s ongoing efforts to combat financial irregularities.