UAE cracks down on illegal money

The UAE said yesterday it would sign new agreements with 17 international organisations as part of its ongoing campaign to combat money laundering and funding of terrorism. The Central Bank said they had agreed to sign the memoranda of understanding with those organisations at an international anti-laundering conference, which ended in the Qatari capital Doha on Saturday according to a report by "Emirates Business 24|7".
"The UAE is committed to international co-ordination in fighting laundering and financing of terrorism… we want to enhance co-operation with all our counterparts in this regard," said Abdulrahim Al Awadi, Assistant Executive Director of the UAE's Anti-money Laundering and Suspicious Cases Unit.
"In Qatar, we communicated with 92 countries out of the 116 members of the group attending the conference. We concluded agreements to sign 17 memoranda of understanding (MoU) in this respect."
Awadi was speaking after signing an MoU with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (Fintrac) at the Central Bank.
Another MoU was inked on Saturday night with the Financial Intelligence Unit of Netherlands while one would be signed today with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the United States. "This MoU is aimed at enhancing our co-operation in fighting money laundering… together we are stronger than we are individual," Fintrac Director, Jeanne Flemming said after signing the agreement with Awadi. Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units organised the summit titled "International Conference on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism" in Doha. –