A report published by the Carnegie Endowment for American Peace Research said that Dubai has become one of the largest centers of dirty money in the world, as it attracts former government officials involved in financial embezzlement, drug gang members who use the Dubai economic system, as well as businessmen convicted of tax fraud and people doing laundering activities. The money was directed by the Gulf emirate.
Judge Vitori, a researcher at the institute, who is part of the report’s preparation team, explains that one of the reasons for Dubai’s transformation from a small city decades ago to a global center for trade, travel and finance is now the desire of the emirate’s authorities to ask only a few questions on the sources and destinations of funds and trade flowing to Dubai.
The report, titled "Dubai's Role in Facilitating Corruption and Global Flows of Illegal Funds", indicates that Emirati officials are aware of the dirty money flows reaching the emirate, and adds that the matter is not related to a cacophony phenomenon in the Dubai economy, but is one of its features.
Discreet authorities The
authors of the report say that Dubai government bodies remain discreet and regularly refuse to share information with the authorities of other countries, which may help in the arrest of criminals in money laundering cases. The report criticizes the allies of the UAE - like the United States and Britain - for turning a blind eye to the Dubai authorities' indulgence in the face of illicit financial flows.
UN reports and investigative investigations confirm:
- # The UAE has become one of the worst countries in the world
- # Dubai has turned into a den for dirty operations, organized crime and money laundering
- # The UAE has turned into an international and regional station for the transportation of terrorist organizations and a center for them to receive and send financial support pic.twitter.com/9Sn4DYtqhf
- Turki Al Shalhoub (@TurkiShalhoub) March 24, 2020
The authors of the Carnegie Institute report - on the authority of Mark Gallotti, a Russian expert in organized crime - say that Dubai has become a center and haven for criminal gangs from Russia and from the republics that were formed after the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
The report lists pages 22, 23, and 24 on illegal financial flows linked to Dubai, and concerns Iranian figures who have been included in the US Treasury Department sanctions regulations for using companies in Dubai to provide equipment for Iran's missile program.
The various continents,
as mentioned in the report, have issues related to Pakistanis, Afghans and Indians involved in money laundering that was directed by Dubai.
The report refers to a person from Kyrgyzstan - called Kamchibek Gulbiyev - who owns an apartment in Dubai Marina, and was included in the 2002 list of US sanctions for overseeing the activities of a drug smuggling gang from Central Asia to Russia and Europe.
The British Imran Yaqoub Ahmed also owns two floors in Burj Khalifa, who was sentenced in Italy three years ago in a tax fraud case, and a company he owns is under investigation in Germany in a similar case worth $ 220 million.
Money laundering and alloy coating .. # Al-Jazeera reveals corruption in the Dubai Gold Market pic.twitter.com/MTethBABuq
- Al-Jazeera (@AJArabic) April 20, 2020
Also among the models, we find that British businessman Sanjay Shah currently lives in Dubai and owns six properties worth $ 56 million, and the British authorities raided his company’s headquarters and closed them in 2016, and is being investigated in Belgium, Britain, Germany, Norway and the United States in cases of tax fraud, In Norway alone, he is pursuing a $ 1.8 billion case.
African personalities
The Carnegie Institute report cites examples of well-known African personalities who have smuggled illicit money to the emirate of Dubai, including former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etti, who is currently following up in Italy in a bribery and embezzlement case.
Also, the richest woman in Africa (Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former President of Angola) - who is pursuing a case of embezzlement in her country worth two billion dollars - was deposited in June of last year the amount of $ 57 million in the account of a fictitious company owned by one of her friends who lives in Dubai.
In Latin America, the name Dubai was associated with two people involved in drug trafficking in Mexico, namely Ezio Benjamin and his son Hussein Edward Gomez, both of whom used Dubai as a base for their activities, and the son is still using a Cyprus company that has an address in Dubai to practice his activity.
Chapters of the report
The report is located at 148 pages and a number of researchers contributed to its accomplishment. It is divided into ten sections that address the political economy of the Emirate of Dubai, the nature of the free trade model adopted by the UAE authorities and the problems associated with the gold trade.
One of the chapters also addresses the fragility of Dubai’s position in front of illicit money flows, as well as the emirate’s luxury real estate sector’s attractiveness to dirty money across the world.
In the seventh chapter, the researchers touch on details explaining how the lenient law enforcement authorities in the UAE contributed to the monitoring of dirty money in making the country a kiss for organized crime organizations and officials in countries using their position to steal their capabilities.
In another chapter, the report deals with the relationship of Dubai to the cable bank scandal that erupted years ago.
In the tenth and final chapter, the owners of the report define the challenges presented to the Dubai authorities, and they suggest some recommendations to overcome the bad current situation of the emirate.