Middle East & Africa | Cleaning up the laundromat

The UAE tries to crack down on dirty money

Luxury homes and a thriving gold trade have been a magnet for corruption

|ABU DHABI

DIRTY MONEY has long been an open secret in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Oligarchs and foreign officials would fly in with stacks of cash, buy houses under their own names and showcase their lives of luxury on social media. Guests at a hotel in downtown Dubai last year might have shared a lift with a Turkish mob boss who had moved in for a while. With its beach-front villas, luxury hotels and fine dining, the UAE’s glitzy business hub is a magnet for money, licit and otherwise.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Cleaning up the laundromat”

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