Money laundering becomes an organised crime in the Gulf

Money laundering has become an organised crime in the Arab Gulf States over the past few years; Saudi bankers and financial experts believe.

In an article published by Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Hayat, the experts called for financial security precautions in Saudi Arabia to be raised and to monitor transactions to prevent money laundering which they admitted occurred in Saudi Arabia on a small scale.

The newspaper said the Bahraini anti-money laundering authorities revealed that senior officials in one of Bahrain’s major banks were involved in money laundering raising questions about the Gulf States’ ability to eliminate or reduce these operations.

The joint Bahraini-Emirati investigations revealed that some of the funds enter the countries from unknown sources, or are obtained through crime, or using forged business records carrying names of people who knew nothing about these transactions.

The investigations showed that funds enter the Kingdom in cash through King Fahad Bridge and go directly to an exchange company to be transferred abroad including to other Gulf States at a rate of a million riyals a day.

Banker Fadel Al-Buainain told the newspaper that the recent investigations into the money laundering cell in Bahrain involving three Gulf states and the confiscated funds which exceeded four billion riyals asserts that “money laundering has turned into organised crime in the Gulf which calls for more caution.”

Al-Buainain said the transfer of cash through the Kingdom’s land ports on daily basis “raises questions over the authorities’ ability to control these processes.

“There must be other cells in the Gulf States still working undercover. The money laundered in the Arab Gulf States exceeds the reported amounts.”

Al-Buainain believes: “The smuggled money was collected in cash from the Saudi markets. But the most important question is the source of these funds. Is it a product of illegal trades like drugs? Or, does it come from disparate sources to support outside groups; classified as terrorism organisations?”