The Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) at the Ministry of Interior has received 1,019 reports of suspicious financial transactions from government agencies and individual financial institutions. After investigating all the received reports, the FIU referred some cases to investigation authorities and others to the authorities concerned. According to informed sources, the FIU received 787 reports from financial institutions in the Kingdom, 132 from government agencies, 72 from financial institutions owned by individuals, and 28 from non-financial institutions. The sources also said the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) has submitted 412 requests to FIU for the investigation of certain accounts. The FIU, supervised by Prince Muhammad Bin Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Assistant Minister of Interior for Security Affairs, is tasked with receiving reports about suspicious financial transactions, analyzing them, and eventually referring them to the responsible authorities. The unit also exchanges information with authorities within and outside the country with the objective of fighting money laundering, which is the practice of engaging in financial transactions to conceal the identity, source or destination of illegally gained money. The laundered money is usually used to finance terrorism.
