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by dindobre 796 days ago
Will the world's criminals start storing their money there or did you mean something else with Switzerland of the Middle East?
3 comments

> The U.S. is the top destination for stashing money illegally, according to a new report from a pro-tax advocacy group.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fact-coalition-report-us-money-...

Start? Uae is a place known for storing and moving shady money. Very few extradition treatys.
> Very few extradition treatys.

Which is also excellent not just for stealing, but also for murder. Half a year ago a German-born Pole killed a family in a car crash and run away to UAE.[0] They tried to extradit him but without success.

[0] https://bnnbreaking.com/breaking-news/accidents/suspected-fa...

That article says he was trying to flee to the Dominican Republic, not the UAE.
The article is from October - in the meantime it turned out he actually fled to UAE. The Polish government tried to extradite him but failed. There are many sources on that, unfortunately in Polish only.
I didn't know that, but I guess that's not too surprising.
Uk is the world’s money laundering capital of the world
Probably not, they'll still put the money in Luxembourg and Switzerland, but they can exchange gold and diamonds and stuff like that from shady dealings in Africa for money there.

If you look into it you'll find that it's a nice marketplace for israeli oligarchs running operations in DR Congo, e.g. for diamonds which Israel exports unexpected amounts of, and you'll also find that the Rapid Support Forces/Janjaweed in Sudan are buddies of the UAE. Unlike Switzerland the UAE is quite aggressive militarily, e.g. occupying part of Yemen.

I find your second paragraph especially interesting, do you have a source (e.g. a book) to get deeper into this?
Been a while since I last had a run through books about this and no time at the moment to go remind myself about titles, but I can give some links to start digging.

Main export of Israel: https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/diamonds/repo...

Local presentation of mining sites: https://en.israelidiamond.co.il/wikidiamond/diamond-mining-m...

Some historical background and interesting sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_industry_in_Israel

As mentioned, reading up on Dan Gertler is a good idea too.

Sudan complaining recently about foreign involvement: https://sudantribune.com/article283888/

If you look into Omar al-Bashir's 'career' you'll likely find it enlightening about the degree of Gulf involvement in Sudan. The Gulf states are really, really good at PR, they can afford the biggest, most efficient firms to run it for them, but there are a lot of books about the colonial history in the region and how trade and economics have evolved over the last century.

The strategically importantly located island of Socotra has a really interesting history, lots of pirates and stuff. Since 2018 UAE is occupying it and lately Yemen news sources have claimed that Israel is in on it, and the US DoD has been asked whether they're there too. Starting point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates_takeover_...

Thanks for taking the time to reply, really interesting stuff.
UAE has basically annexed Socotra.
Dan Gertler