ANTI MONEY LAUNDERING AND COMPLIANCE
Although the UAE has greatly enhanced its anti-money laundering laws in recent years, far too often, regional businesses fail to keep up, risking investigation and prosecution for non-compliance. The consequences can be severe; investigations frequently take many months, during which a company’s bank accounts may well be frozen and key personnel unable to travel. If found guilty of money laundering offences, defendants face significant jail time.
At the same time, after focusing on the “fear factor,” many practitioners advocate unnecessarily complex protocols and frequently advise their clients to avoid certain customers or business lines simply because their names or location feature adversely in an online checking service. In giving anti-bribery advice, some go even further. We know of an infamous example where an international firm advised a multinational client not to take any clients to its corporate box at a national stadium to avoid falling foul of anti-bribery legislation. That is going too far.
ADG’s AML and Compliance team has extensive experience advising clients on current best practices, giving them and their customers peace of mind. We aim to provide common sense advice and suggest pragmatic approaches. Our aim is to help our clients distinguish genuine red flags from false flags and to follow a risk-based approach rather than simply become Business Prevention Officers. We understand the challenges of emerging markets and work with our clients to meet them.
Our lawyers frequently speak at conferences and appear in publications on these subjects. We are often asked to be part of multinational and multidisciplinary teams to advise international clients on a joined-up approach to enable them to do business more safely in the region.
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