Opinion: How the UAE’s mafia-style tactics are hurting both Sudans. The UAE has signed agreements with Sudan and South Sudan, strangling the two countries economically and politically, while openly supporting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). A report by the United Nations Panel of Experts on Darfur, under Security Council Resolution 1591, accused the UAE of supporting...
Category: Crime
East London money launderer on the run after smuggling suitcases stuffed with cash to Dubai
East London money launderer on the run after smuggling suitcases stuffed with cash to Dubai. An east London money launderer is on the run after smuggling an estimated £5 million in cash stuffed in suitcases out of the country. The National Crime Agency this week appealed for help to find Abdul Fahad, of Meads Lane, Ilford, who absconded on bail...
Why Iran and Russia can dodge Western sanctions
Iran has been living with Western sanctions for almost 40 years, and never have so many sanctions been imposed so quickly as against Russia. Although their effect is limited, there is little alternative. Iran knows it, China knows it and apparently, so does the US government: despite existing sanctions against the oil industry of the Islamic Republic,...
South Africa Battles to Extradite Gupta Brothers from the UAE
Advocate Shamila Batohi, the National Director of Public Prosecutions of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), disclosed ongoing struggles faced by the South African government in its attempts to extradite Atul and Rajesh Gupta. The Gupta brothers, who are wanted in South Africa on charges including fraud and money laundering linked to State Capture, are currently...
Cash couriers who smuggled £100million out of UK in suitcases sentenced
Gang used WhatApp group called ‘Sunshine and lollipops’ to co-ordinate money laundering between the UK and Dubai. Six members of a money laundering network which smuggled more than £100million from the UK to the UAE using suitcases have been jailed. The network transported the cash to Dubai during 83 separate trips between November 2019 and October 2020, overseen by ringleader...
Air Travelers Help Fuel $2 Trillion Global Money Laundering System
Each year, money launders funnel $2 trillion in ill-gotten gains into the financial system. And a lot of that money travels by air, in cash, often in people’s suitcases, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Sunday (April 21). The report cited figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) showing that international...
European Parliament opposes EC removal of UAE, Gibraltar, Panama from ‘high risk’ list
MEPs in the European Parliament have drafted a motion for a resolution rejecting the European Commission’s proposal to remove the United Arab Emirates, Gibraltar and Panama from the list of high-risk third countries with strategic deficiencies in their Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes. As previously reported, the European Commission published a proposed...
US restricts trade with companies tied to drones used by Russia, Houthis
The United States restricted trade with five companies on Wednesday that it said help produce and procure drones for use by Russia in Ukraine and by Iran-backed Houthis in Red Sea shipping attacks. The companies from Russia and China were among 11 additions to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which means suppliers need licenses before...
How international gold dealers exploited a tiny African kingdom’s economic dream
Eswatini’s king professed to have a bold plan for a thriving economic zone. ICIJ uncovered two phantom gold refineries channeling millions of dollars to Dubai through it. Against a backdrop of rolling hills and sugar cane fields, a generous stretch of cleared land borders the small industrial town of Matsapha in central Eswatini, a tiny...
Gangsters’ Paradise: Why do so many British mobsters and Irish king pins like the Kinahans flee to Dubai
Gangsters’ Paradise: Why do so many British mobsters and Irish king pins like the Kinahans flee to Dubai… and how long will their safe haven last? A generation of British gangsters have made Dubai the new Marbella thanks to the protection provided to them by local elites, it has been claimed by a legal expert. Criminals from...