UAE | Crime
Allegation of piracy syndicates in UAE denied
The illicit gains of Somali pirates have not found their way into Dubai for alleged money-laundering operations, said Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Deputy Chief of Dubai Police.
- By Siham Al Naj, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:07 June 21, 2009
Dubai: The illicit gains of Somali pirates have not found their way into Dubai for alleged money-laundering operations, said Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Deputy Chief of Dubai Police.
Al Mazeina was responding to a report by a British newspaper recently.
The newspaper in question, The Independent, had alleged in a report that vast sums of ransom money that the pirates have extracted for the safe release of ships they hijacked in
the seas off Somalia and the Horn of Africa had been laundered in Dubai and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries through piracy syndicates based in these countries.
Dismissing the allegations as baseless, Al Mazeina stressed that the UAE has very strict legislations in place against all types of money-laundering activities.
The UAE is the only country in the region where money laundering cases were taken to court, and sentences issued, he pointed out.
Any amount of money exceeding Dh40,000 is monitored and considered questionable until proven otherwise, he added.
Task force The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issues periodic reports on uncooperative countries and Dubai Police have never received any adverse remarks from FATF about such operations in the UAE, he said.
Major General Al Mazeina said some parties wanted to tarnish the image of the UAE by spreading vicious rumours.
The Independent had not sought to verify with the police about the issue or to get a balanced perspective and the headline of the article specifically referred to money laundering activities in GCC countries and Dubai in particular, he pointed out.
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