About Event

As a professional services firm, are you unknowingly committing a criminal offence?

Under the laws of the UAE, failure to report suspicions of money laundering or terrorist financing is a criminal offence.

Unsurprisingly, on 3 March 2021, the UAE issued a circular reminding all law firms, accounting firms, real estate brokers, company service providers, and dealers of precious metals to register with the goAML platform introduced by the government by 31 March 2021.

Not just that, in October 2020, 200 law firms in the UAE were suspended for failing to comply with KYC/ AML procedures.

This underscores the importance for professional services firms to comply with the KYC/ AML regulation, particularly the Federal Decree No. 20 of 2018 on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism.

Failure to comply with these laws could attract penalties ranging from AED 50,000 to AED 500,000.

In addition, a perception that the firms' clients are engaged in unethical behaviour will make quality clients shun any association with the firm. This will create a chain of events that will hamper growth and drive potential clients to competitors.

Regulatory fines, embezzlement, and other malfeasance can be prevented by low-cost KYC checks to identify potential warning signs.

In this session we discuss:

• What does KYC entail?
• Strategies to avoid fraud and financial crime risk
• Early warning signals and red flags
• Tools for conducting KYC checks

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