A man suspected of being one of the world’s most prolific underground financiers has been arrested in Delhi after a year-long international manhunt. Naresh Jain, 50, who denies any illegal activity, was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of laundering millions of pounds a day through the hawala system for criminals, including members of al-Qaeda and British drug traffickers, according to Indian and British police. Using hawala, money can be deposited with a banker in one country and instantly collected from the banker’s associate in another country without any physical or electronic transfer taking place. It depends entirely on trust and remains extremely hard to regulate, despite international efforts. Mr Jain, a Dubai-based Indian national also known as Naresh Patel, was being tracked by detectives in London, the US, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and the United Arab Emirates when he was seized by the Indian Narcotics Control Bureau.  The British Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said that he controlled a money-laundering system that, at its height, was capable of moving $2.2 billion (£1.3 billion) a year.
read more – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6949339.ece?print=yes&randnum=1260344927078 [From The Times December 9, 2009]