Recent UAE Court judgements and stringent measures taken by UAE authorities point to an approach of zero tolerance towards money laundering activities. In most of the cases, the officials were accused of money laundering, misappropriation of public funds, forgery and use of forged documents.

Related Services: UAE Mainland Litigation, Banking Legal Services

A former Chairman and a CEO of an Abu Dhabi company were sentenced to 15 years in prison for money laundering. In addition, the court ordered the convicted to pay AED8 billion and demanded the seizure of the proceeds of the crime and a property of equivalent value. The court observed that ‘the men took advantage of their position in the company and misused public funds’.

In a similar move, a former CEO and employees of a large engineering giant are facing charges in a foreign country, based on the request from UAE Funds Prosecution. News reports say that the CEO and employees had left UAE a few years back, and were arrested in 2020 in a foreign country based on Interpol notices, after the UAE courts found them guilty of money laundering.

It is quite interesting to note that not only large scale activities, but smaller entities and individuals were also fined for money laundering activities.

News reports say that in a separate move, the UAE Central Bank has imposed fines of approximately 45.7 million on 11 UAE banks, under Article 14 of the Federal Decree Law No. (20) of 2018, for not reaching appropriate levels of compliance on anti-money laundering and sanctions.

To read more, kindly visit following links:

Part of ATB Legal’s Dispute Resolution practice.