ATTENDEES at this week’s Egmont Group of FIUs conference in Abu Dhabi have been warned by organisers not to share photos on social media.
The warning comes as more than two thirds of fincrime professionals (68%) said the body representing the worlds FIUs was wrong to allow the conference be hosted by the “grey-listed” United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Moreover, one of the world’s top experts on dirty money has warned that allowing the conference to be hosted by the UAE could be seen as an attempt to influence FATF decision-making.
The conference has attracted more than 400 attendees, including some of the world’s most influential financial crime law enforcement chiefs.
The UAE is on FATF’s “grey” watchlist and is the favoured destination of choice for Russian dirty money and gold. It has also been criticised for giving safe haven to international crime syndicates such as the Kinahan Cartel. Only last month investigative journalists revealed the UAE was accused of turning a blind eye to industrial scales of sex trafficking.
Speaking about the UAE’s decision to host the conference, a leading global fincrime expert said the decision could be seen as trying to influence FATF. “Some might say ‘it’s one way to help get off a FATF watchlist…,'” Dr Nicholas Gilmour commented on LinkedIn.
Dr Gilmour is a world-leading authority on money laundering and co-author of the critically acclaimed book on the subject, “The War on Dirty Money.”
Many of the Egmont Group’s members from its 166 member countries also represent their countries at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which last year placed the UAE on its watchlist.
The Middle East financial capital has said it is putting in place measures to get off the watchlist and has been waging a pr campaign to ensure it is successful
Separately over the weekend Egmont, which represents 166 FIUs across the world, warned its delegates not to post any pictures from the conference.
“We want to remind delegates to avoid externally sharing images or content with sensitive information via social media or other means,” the organisers instructed.
Meanwhile, in a survey conducted by AML Intelligence, 68% of respondents said Egmont Group was wrong to allow Abu Dhabi be the host city for the summit of financial crime police and law enforcement. Just 29% agreed with the decision and 3% did not know.
The conference opened today (Monday) and continues until Friday (July7).
Xolisile Khanyile the director of South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) is the current chair of the Egmont Group. Last month she met with the UAE’s AML-CFT Executive Office Director, Hamid Alzaabi at the FATF Plenary in Paris.
At the FATF plenary, the Egmont Group said it contributed “particularly on the revision of Recommendation 8/INR 8 and FATF Guidance on NPOs and participated in the project team for the potential revision of Rec 4 and Rec 38 on Asset Recovery.”
The group also said it was “very excited to be a co-leading partner in the joint project on Money Laundering of Cyber-Enabled Fraud, together with FATF and Interpol.”
The decision of the group to allow UAE host the conference has raised eyebrows internationally given the country is a well known clearing house for Russian dirty money and in many cases its conversion to gold. In Dubai, the city’s swankiest real estate has been snapped up by oligarchs who have found safe haven there.
“There is definitely a flavour to this year’s event which has not been present before. A lot of delegates are on their guard so as not to be unduly influenced by being hosted here. There is a degree of paranoia with the warning of not posting material on social. There is an edge to the event but we will see how far that remains by the end of the week,” one delegate told AML Intelligence.
Last month, the Sunday Times newspaper in the UK reported that influential figures in Dubai were protecting the Kinahan Organised Crime Cartel despite the international drug trafficking gang being on the Wanted List of several countries and the subject of US sanctions with $5M bounties on the heads of the gang leaders.
At the ‘European Anti-Financial Crime Summit 2023’ in Dublin last month, one of the world’s top investigative journalists described the city as “the new Panama” – ie the nerve centre of shady deals.
A Reuters and International Consortium of Investigative Journalists investigation said the UAE is a major destination for sex trafficking, where African women are forced into prostitution by illicit networks operating within the country. Emirati authorities do little to protect these women and law enforcement was turning a blind eye to the issue, according to anti-trafficking activists, Nigerian authorities and interviews with trafficked women.
Intelligence chiefs across the world see the Middle East’s financial capital as providing a safe place of work for many international gangsters – albeit local enforcement has stepped up operations and more recently been publicising a crackdown on financial crime.
The theme of the plenary is: “Use of Advanced IT Technologies by FIUs to Enhance Their Operations.”
It will be featured in discussions throughout the week and is the topic for the plenary’s final Heads of FIU Thematic Discussion. Also, during the event, four working groups and eight regional groups will meet to continue advancing the organisation’s goals, and the 2023 Best Egmont Case Award (BECA) will be presented to an FIU “that demonstrated exceptional, engaging, and educative casework.”
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