The FIU director made the revelation during the Regional Financial Intelligence Analysis Course for Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) for five GIABA member states on Monday in Banjul.
Asked if any financial crimes have been reported in The Gambia recently, Mr. Darboe responded in the positive.
“Yes we have come across a number of them, some were analysed, sent to the police for further investigation and were found to be genuine, some were found to be Gambian, some were analysed sent to the police for investigation and were prosecuted,” he said.
He went on: “We even reported a conviction of money laundering in The Gambia where 60 million was laundered through The Gambia and the funds were forfeited to the state.”
Meanwhile, according to the Financial Intelligence Units director, fraud was rampant in the previous year accounting for the greater percentage of the financial crimes reported.
Darboe said: “The FIU received a total of 47 transaction reports of which 42 domestic information requests, one international information request in the year 2020.”
“In the same year, six international information requests were sent, those CR we received so far in 2020, fraud emerged as the most reported offence of money laundering accounting for 56%.”
Mr. Darboe urged the selected FIU participants to be more vigilant as reports have emerged showing some people using the Covid-19 as leverage to engage in financial crimes with bogus amounts all in the name of fighting the pandemic.
According to him, issues of counterfeit personal protection equipment, bogus Covid-19 medication as well as online fraud among many other things have been reported.
