Dubai Police and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Office of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have signed an agreement to develop an international diploma specialised in combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

The agreement was signed in the Fazaa pavilion at Expo 2020 by Major General Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant Commander-in-Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs at Dubai Police, and Judge Dr Hatem Ali, the regional director of the UNODC, in the presence of Brigadier Jamal Salem Al Jallaf, Director of the General Department of Criminal Investigation(CID); Hamid Al Zaabi, Director General of the Executive Office for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing; Brigadier Abdulaziz Al Ahmad, Deputy Director-General of the Federal Criminal Police at the Ministry of Interior, Chairman of the Money Laundering Crimes Investigations Authorities Sub-Committee in the UAE; Jawhar Al-Nafisi, President of the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF); and several officers and individuals from both sides.

A training course for trainers on combating money laundering and terrorist financing would be held during the next week.

Expert Colonel Dr Juma’a Ali Al Rahoumi, Director of the Anti-Money Laundering Department in the General Department of Criminal Investigation, said the diploma takes into account the methodology of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the strategy of the General Secretariat of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, and all related international conventions.

He explained that the diploma consists of 19 scientific subjects that focuses mainly on proving the crime of money laundering and efficiently tracking illegal assets and criminal proceeds as per the FATF standards on inferences investigations and tracking money transfers across financial institutions.

Al Rahoumi further pointed out that the Diploma targets the personnel of 21 entities at the federal and local levels, all of which are linked to the UAE Executive Office for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.

“We will follow the same approach in applying the diploma on combating money laundering and terrorist financing, which we launch at the national level, and in the coming years, it will become available to other countries at the regional and international levels. We hope that this diploma will be the main driver of an integrated professional development programme on combating money laundering and terrorist financing,” Judge Ali said.