Laws & Penalties for Money Laundering in UAE

The Federal Decretal-Law No. (20) of 2018 on AML, CFT, and Illegal Organizations specifies the conditions under which the anti-money laundering regulations in the UAE are applied.

Clause (1) of Article 2 of the law states that anybody who deliberately engages in any of the following actions while possessing knowledge that the money is the profits of a criminal or a misdemeanor is guilty of money laundering.

• Carrying out any transaction to transfer, move, or hide the proceeds of an illicit source.
• The funds’ real source, location, or nature, as well as their use, movement, ownership, or rights about these proceeds, must all be concealed.
• Acquiring, holding, or utilizing funds as soon as they are received.
• Helping the predicate offense’s offender in avoiding punishment.

Money laundering is regarded as a separate offense. The sentence for the predicate offense will not shield the offender from punishment for the money laundering offense. It shouldn’t be necessary to establish the illegal source of the money before imposing punishment on the predicate offender.

Moreover, Article 3 of the Federal Law No 3 of 1987 says;

• Any of the deeds listed in Article (2), Clause (1) of the current Decree-Law, if the person knows that the proceeds are owned entirely or in part by or intended to finance a terrorist organization, a terrorist, or a terrorist crime, even if there is no intention to hide or disguise their illicit origin.
• A person who has done such activities on behalf of a terrorist organization or a terrorist individual while being aware of their real motivations or purposes or who supplies gathers, prepares, procures, or facilitates the acquisition of Proceeds with the aim to use them.