FIA seeks access to Armaghan’s bitcoin trading platform in money laundering case

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has sought the court’s approval to access the bitcoin trading platform used by Armaghan Qureshi, the prime accused in the Mustafa Amir murder case, in a money laundering case registered against him, a Geo News report said.

During the hearing on Wednesday, the FIA requested the court to issue orders for obtaining account details from the platform, citing that the suspect had created accounts under the names of his two employees. The agency also urged the court to direct trading platforms to provide details of Armaghan’s accounts, transactions, trading history, and IP addresses.

Meanwhile, the court sought information from foreign cryptocurrency trading companies regarding the case. Armaghan was booked in another case earlier; an FIR was filed alleging his involvement in money laundering and fraud.

With the FIR registered on behalf of the government in the Anti-Money Laundering Circle, the FIA accused Armaghan of being involved in hawala-hundi, digital currency and other illegal

activities.

Armaghan, who is currently in judicial custody, allegedly carried out the kidnapping and murder of Mustafa Amir after he went missing on January 6.

The whole case unravelled after Armaghan opened fire at a team of the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) — a specialised unit of the Karachi police responsible for tackling cases related to murder and extortion — during a raid at his residence in Karachi's DHA earlier this month.

The deceased's body — found by police in a car near the Hub checkpoint on January 12 — was later exhumed and subsequently buried after an initial DNA profiling report confirmed that the mortal remains belonged to Mustafa.

Last week, a local court rejected Armaghan's request to record his confessional statement, citing concerns regarding his mental state. The court's decision to reject Armaghan's plea for a statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code, came after he reportedly vacillated between confessing and refusing to provide a statement in the court of judicial magistrate (South).

The latest FIR against Armaghan, which includes money laundering allegations, claims that the suspect used to earn $300,000 to $400,000 each month via fraud. The amount the FIR adds was then converted to digital currency, which was used to purchase vehicles owned by him.

With the FIR alleging that the suspect had opened bank accounts in the name of two of his employees, the FIA claimed that Armaghan's call centre was used to make fraudulent calls to the United States. The calls were used to obtain critical information from US citizens, which then were used to fraudulently extract money from them which was eventually received by Armaghan.

Elaborating on Armaghan's illegal activities, the FIR alleges that the suspect established his illegal call centre in 2018 and was operating an organised fraud network.