Nigerian citizens laundered money via Lithuanian post – FNTT

Rūta Andriuškaitė, spokeswoman for FNTT, told BNS that the probe into money laundering by the Nigerian citizens involved Lietuvos Paštas. In her words, the authorities cannot rule out that the laundering was possible due to the postal service’s weak money laundering prevention scheme.

“We cannot rule out that the money received form illicit operations were withdrawn at postal offices of Lietuvos Paštas due to possibly weak system of money laundering prevention instruments. The board of Lietuvos Paštas has been notified about the possibly weak laundering prevention and the investigation in connection to the African citizens,” Andriuškaitė said.

In her words, FNTT specialists suspect that some of the cash was being withdrawn in offices of Lietuvos Paštas by using forged personal ID documents of citizens of African countries.

In May, FNTT announced having launched a probe involving citizens of Nigeria studying at a university in Kaunas who were suspected of withdrawing money transfers with forged ID. The total amount of money transfers was about 1.5 million euros.

The service then did not reveal the institution used to withdraw the cash.

Minderienė was on Friday dismissed from the top position at Lietuvos Paštas, which has a license of electronic money institution. The decision to sack her was taken based on conclusions from the central Bank of Lithuania and the FNTT probe.

The Transport and Communications Ministry of the Bank of Lithuania did not officially specify the ways, in which Lietuvos Paštas failed to ensure prevention of money laundering.