ISLAMABAD - Pakistani authorities tipped by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have busted a 15-member gang that printed “high-quality” counterfeit bank notes including foreign currency, officials said on Tuesday. “Ten members of the criminal gang have been arrested,” Amna Idrees and Fahim Noor, two investigators of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), told journalists in Islamabad.
The detainees were put behind bars for interrogation after being produced before a court in the city of Rawalpindi last week.
Names of five absconding suspects have been placed on the Exit Control List to prevent them from escaping abroad.
Because they wouldn't have printed any fake passports, you know. | “The national exchequer suffered a loss of 30 to 35 billion rupees (more than 500 million US dollars) due to the illegal activities of the gang,” said Noor. The group that operated in a number of major cities of the country had printed and used Pakistani and Indian rupees, US dollars, British pounds and UAE dirhams worth billions over the past seven years. They also produced fake saving certificates to avail loans amounting to Rs330 million (5.45 million US dollars) from four local banks.
Some influential people, including bankers and government officials, were helping the gang, therefore, the authorities would not make public the names of the arrested people, the NAB officials said.
Figures, you have to have inside help to move that kind of money. | Police also seized printing material and state-of-the-art machines used by the counterfeiters from the central city of Lahore. |