The National, 24 May 2021
A gold trader in Dubai has been fined a total of Dh1.35 million ($367,597) for eight separate breaches of laws governing money laundering and terrorism financing.
The unnamed company was fined as part of the Ministry of Economy’s extensive inspection campaign into Designated Non-Financial Business and Professions (DNFBPs). DNFBPs are a group of non-financial businesses governed by money laundering rules, and include precious metals dealers, property brokers, auditors and corporate services providers that offer company formation services.
“Three companies belonging to the group were issued fines of Dh450,000 each for violations,” the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The Dubai gold trader was fined for breaches including a failure to adopt the necessary measures to determine criminal risks, failure “to establish internal policies, controls and procedures commensurate with the volume of its business”, failure to reduce risk, and a series of other offences.
The ministry instructed DNFBPs earlier this year to register with the goAML portal set up by the ministry in 2019 and with an automatic reporting system for sanctions list. Registrations needed to be completed by the end of last month.
