He disclosed to the customs inspector the amount and obtained the patent
A million dirhams in a clothes bag leads a businessman to court
Attorney Badr Khamis: The businessman proved the legitimacy of the source of the funds with documents included in the investigation report.
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The judicial authorities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai considered a money laundering case that began with the discovery of about a million dirhams in a bag of clothes in the car of a Gulf resident while entering the country through a border crossing, and then a judicial debate took place based on accusing the man of committing money laundering crimes, which lasted about a year and a half, and ended with innocence By the Court of First Instance in Dubai, then it was referred to the Public Prosecution in Dubai as the competent authority, so it resorted to investigations and expert reports to conclude that there was no way to institute a criminal case against the accused whose defense was based on several aspects, the most important of which is his disclosure of the amount in his possession to the customs inspector upon his entry.
The incident began when a young businessman was caught entering the country through a land border crossing, and the customs inspector asked him if he had something in his possession that he wanted to disclose, and he informed him that he was carrying around a million dirhams in his clothes bag, and he was arrested, and the Public Prosecution in Abu Dhabi directed him to violate the paragraph The first of the Anti-Money Laundering Crime Law related to the disclosure of the amounts that are held by travelers arriving or departing from the country that exceed the permissible limit.
The defense attorney for the accused, lawyer Badr Abdullah Khamis, argued that the arrest of the accused was null and void because it was without the permission of the Public Prosecution, and also focused on the fact that the case documents were completely free of any evidence that the accused committed the crime of money laundering, stressing that what is proven is his disclosure to the customs inspector of the existence of money in his possession Rather, he proved the legality of its source with documents included in the investigation report confirming that the seized amount was not the result of a money laundering crime, and despite that, he was arrested.
After examining the case and the papers submitted by the defense, the Court of First Instance in Abu Dhabi ruled the defendant’s innocence, confirming in the merits of the judgment that the judicial rulings must be based on certainty and certainty, and suspicion has been included in the evidence, in addition to the proven fact that the accused has disclosed the sums in his possession.
After obtaining the patent from the court of first instance, another chapter of litigation began in Dubai, based on the same incident, and an investigation was opened into the transactions of the company that he owned, and the related bank accounts.
After the investigations and expert reports, the Public Prosecution concluded that there was no evidence that the funds that the company had dealt with, whether by transferring inside or outside the country, including the amount that was seized in his possession of funds from illegal sources, as no information or requests were received from law enforcement authorities in his country.
She explained that Federal Law No. 4 of 2004 and its amendments to Federal Law No. 9 of 2014 in the matter of confronting money laundering crimes states that anyone who was aware that the funds were derived from a felony or misdemeanor and intentionally transferred, transferred, deposited or administered it with the intention of Hide its illegal source.
Clean money
The Dubai Public Prosecution stated in the merits of its decision that there must be two pillars: the first is material, which is the criminal activity of the perpetrator, which is the transfer of funds obtained from crimes into clean money, and the moral being that the accused knows that these funds are derived from crimes.
She pointed out that the report of the joint committee represented in the Money Laundering and Financial Crimes Section of the Department of Combating Organized Crime in Dubai Police and the Financial Information Unit at the Central Bank concluded that there was no evidence that the suspect or his company funds were from illegal sources, so there is no point to institute a criminal case against him.
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