Dubai Court Sentences Gang of 18 for Charges of Money Laundering

Richard Marley
April 06, 2022
3 minutes read
2129

The Dubai Criminal Court has convicted a gang of 18 individuals belonging to different countries who were charged with laundering Dhs 185 million between 2014 and 2020.

According to reports, the gang was manipulating the financial system with the help of 3 shell companies that they had created after seizing the assets of the clients of a GCC lawyer’s office.

The Dubai Criminal Court sentences 4 of the individuals to 3 years in prison and deportation after their jail term was served. It also sentenced 8 others to 1 year in prison along with deportation. Two of the individuals were fined Dhs 20,000 and four were acquitted.

The court seized the money of all the convicted individuals, which totaled the value of the funds obtained from money laundering – Dhr 113,650,000. The three shell companies established by the convicts were fined Dhs 500,000. The major convict in the first case of the crime of breach of trust was acquitted.

The case report shows that a GCC lawyer found out the treachery of the head of the Intellectual Property Department in an office affiliated with him, who seized the office’s fees from clients and founded three companies with the aim of manipulating clients and collecting office fees from a major car agency in the country.

The major convict in the money laundering case reportedly confiscated Dhs185 million from the office of the GCC lawyer, conniving with others. He also established several companies in several countries, through which he received office fees in cooperation with a manager working in a car company in Europe, where the latter facilitated the transfer of office fees to the account of the private company of the suspect.

According to the case reports, the gang had control over agencies for international brands in several countries and printed receipts in the name of their companies as one of the branches of the GCC Lawyer’s Office. As a result, they received millions of dirhams which they transferred to bank accounts belonging to people in several countries.

Also, three gangsters transferred millions of dirhams through exchange offices in close periods of time, which violates the law. Investigations showed that one of the gang members set up several accounts in his home country, while three others transferred $6 million to one of them and $2 million to another with the aim of concealing their crime.

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IMF Urges Central Bank of Seychelles to Upgrade Transparency and AML Controls
The Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) has been advised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to have transparent practices and AML controls.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged CBS, the Central Bank of Seychelles, to incorporate refined practices in different accountability and governance areas. These include confidentiality, supervisory & confidentiality policies along with internal AML/CFT protocols.

According to the statement by IMF, CBS is giving information regarding legal structure, mandate, and a few key elements related to anti-corruption arrangements, risk and human resource management, and accountability on its website.

The review of IMF stated, “To better support the public’s perception of the CBS as a well-governed institution, it should consider highlighting these aspects in its annual report, and/or provide additional information on its website, particularly on human capital management, anti-corruption policies and decision-making arrangements.”

As per IMF’s review, CBS needs to work on several elements, including information’s accessibility to its internal governance arrangements. It could be done by maintaining the Annual Report’s respective sections and website. Moreover, it must overhaul the proceedings by publishing its Code of Conduct and Ethics.

“The legal mechanism for confidentiality issues has been established, but the dissemination and disclosure of the confidentiality framework could be enhanced. The CBS discloses basic information on its AML/CFT supervisory powers and policies, as well as on its related internal control framework, but disclosures on the processes and outcomes of its AML/CFT external policies and internal controls are limited,” said CBS Transparency Code Review of IMF.

IMF review said that the ensurance of transparency practices with new functions and powers by CBS would be effective for its own benefit. The practices adopted by CBS must comply with the powers acquired by the coming legislative act.

IMF’s CBS Transparency Code Review said, “In the last few years, the CBS’s regulatory powers have been substantially expanded with the adoption of AML/CFT Act and Financial Consumer Protection Act. Moreover, the forthcoming Financial Stability Act is expected to provide a transparent legal basis for the CBS’s (and other financial sector regulators) actions on financial stability. These legislative acts will require an expansion of the CBS’s transparency practices so that the related CBS activities continue to be appropriately disclosed to stakeholders.”

The review aims to identify the strength and improvement areas of CBS by allowing it to evaluate its transparency practices. The review presents the map of CBS’s transparency choices in comparison to several practices in three different categories (core, comprehensive, and expanded).

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Dubai Court Sentences Gang of 18 for Charges of Money Laundering

An Overview of Perpetual KYC

The Need for Perpetual KYC in Banking Sector

Recent Crime Cases in the Banking Industry

Criminal Gang in US Charged with Bank Fraud and Money Laundering

Two Former Employees of Major Bank Charged with Loan Fraud

Global Regulatory Authorities Monitoring the Banking Sector

US

UK

Securing Banking Organizations Through Perpetual KYC

What Shufti Pro Offers?

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Let’s prove your customer’s

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