The Financial Action Group (FATF) said on Thursday that the UAE is not doing enough to prevent money laundering despite its recent progress and raises concerns about its ability to combat the financing of "terrorism".
The world body for controlling illegal money will put this Gulf country under surveillance now for a year.
The report took 14 months to prepare and included a visit to the UAE in July, which gave a "low" rating for money laundering investigations and prosecutions, and a "moderate" rating for the preventive measures and financial sanctions associated with combating the financing of "terrorism".
If the UAE fails to make improvements, it may find itself alongside countries such as Syria, Yemen and Pakistan, which it considers "FATF" to suffer from "strategic deficiencies."
The UAE has tightened financial regulations in recent years, in an effort to overcome the perception of some foreign investors as a focus of illegal money.
FATF (Paris-based) said that the UAE has "awareness gestures" of the risks related to money laundering and the financing of "terrorism". She added that the authorities must fill gaps in the real estate and precious metals sectors that money laundering professionals can take advantage of.
It stated that it should also enhance the use of financial information in money laundering cases and in recovering crime revenues, and the group urged the UAE to actively pursue international money laundering networks and enhance official cross-border cooperation.
The report also said that there is a notable absence of appropriate investigations and prosecutions in money laundering cases related to high-risk crimes and high-risk sectors such as money transfers.
FATF concluded that between 2013 and 2019, the UAE tried 92 people and convicted 75 in financing activities for "terrorism" while there were fifty trials and 33 convictions in money laundering cases between 2013 and 2018, among which Dubai witnessed only 17 trials related to money laundering. Over five years.