Full story of penalizing a former manager in a bank licensed by "Dubai Financial Services"
Today, the Dubai Financial Services Authority published a notice of its decision against the former Relationship Manager of one of its authorized firms, Ashish Bandari.
The authority stated in a statement that it had taken measures on September 17, 2020 against Bandari, for his involvement in perceiving violations of anti-money laundering regulations during the years 2011 to 2013 and obstructing the conduct of the Authority's investigations during the years 2017-2018, when it imposed a fine of $ 165,000 ( About 605.5 thousand dirhams) and restricting him from exercising any tasks related to providing financial services in or from the Dubai International Financial Center.
According to the statement, Bandari referred the decision issued against him to the Financial Markets Legal Authority on October 18, 2020, but that referral was withdrawn after reaching a settlement agreement with the Dubai Financial Services Authority.
This action comes after the authority discovered that Bandari, who held the position of a relationship manager at a private bank in the Dubai International Financial Center, was the director and real beneficiary of an entity registered in the British Virgin Islands that was established with a third party introducing potential clients to the business owner.
Bandari arranged for the Virgin Islands entity to receive the referral fees paid by his employer to the third party provided to clients without disclosing his role in that entity.
The company Bandari worked for believed that the entity in the Virgin Islands was owned and under the control of the third party provided to potential clients.
Bandari also received instructions from some clients to transfer funds to the entity in the British Virgin Islands, and from those funds received, large sums were transferred to his own bank accounts outside the UAE.
The authority discovered that Pandari was able to follow up the transfer of funds and thereby retain clients by not disclosing his foreign activities and his role in the entity in the British Virgin Islands.
For its part, the licensed company that Bandari worked for failed to take the necessary steps to verify the identity and ownership of the entity in the British Virgin Islands in accordance with its obligation under anti-money laundering regulations, and instead accepted Bandari's assertions, which he was fully aware of their incorrectness.
The DFSA found that Bandari was aware of his company's violation of anti-money laundering legislation by concealing relevant information from the licensed company and its compliance team.
Moreover, Bandari failed, without any acceptable excuse, to comply with the DFSA's requests to provide more information, and even provided the authority with false, misleading or deceptive information with the intent to obstruct the investigation.
The chief executive of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, Brian Stearwalt, said, "It is the duty of the employees of the licensed companies to act with absolute integrity and professionalism, especially the employees responsible for dealing directly with clients and investors."
He added, "The Dubai Financial Services Authority expects complete honesty and transparency upon requesting them to provide information, and will not hesitate to impose restrictions and penalties on violators."
"The fine imposed in this case was higher than usual, due to the authority's prior imposition of penalties for an incident of very similar misconduct," Stairwalt said.
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