AML Policy Statement

Last Updated: September, 2023

1. General Statement and Purpose
MDC Business Advisors-FZCO is committed to complying with the anti-money laundering legislation, in particular the Federal Decree-Law No 20 of 2018 on Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Financing of Illegal Organizations and Federal Decree-Law No 26 of 2021 to amend certain provisions of Federal Decree Law No (20) of 2018 on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Illegal Organizations.
The company also has a dedicated due diligence program with necessary measures and controls in place to ensure compliance with the current regulations, laws and standards within the United Arab Emirates. We are aiming to ensure a continuous practice of monitoring and training for an inclusive approach.
The company understands that it has a responsibility to identify and combat money laundering across a broad spectrum including, but not limited to financial transactions, such as possessing. We operate in a transparent environment with assessment, monitoring and reporting at the core of business functions.
We regularly monitor and review our policies, procedures and training on the matter.

2.Definitions

As used in this AML Policy Statement, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

The Company: MDC Business Advisors-FZCO (“we,” “us,” or “our”) – a company, which is recognized as one of Designated Nonfinancial Businesses and Professions under the Federal Decree-Law No 20 of 2018 on Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism.
Designated Nonfinancial Businesses and Professions: Anyone, natural or legal persons, who conducts one or several of the commercial or professional activities defined in Article 3 of the Cabinet Decision No 10 of 2019 Concerning the Implementing Regulation of Decree Law No. (20) of 2018 On Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Illegal Organizations.
Client: Any natural or legal person involved in or attempts to carry out any of the business and financial activities and transactions with the Company.
Money Laundering: Any of the acts listed below:
  1. Transferring or moving proceeds or conducting any transaction with the aim of concealing or disguising their Illegal source;
  2. Concealing or disguising the true nature, source or location of the proceeds as well as the method involving their disposition, movement, ownership or rights with respect to said proceeds;
  3. Acquiring, possessing or using proceeds upon receipt;
  4. Assisting the perpetrator of the predicate offense to escape punishment.
Proceeds: Funds generated directly or indirectly from the commitment of any crime or felony including profits, privileges, and economic interests, or any similar funds converted wholly or partly into other funds.
Predicate offense: Any act constituting a felony or misdemeanor under the applicable laws of the United Arab Emirates.
Financing of Terrorism: Any of the acts listed below:
  1. Offering, collecting, preparing, obtaining or facilitating the obtainment of funds for the purpose of using them in part or in whole, in the commission of a terrorist offence;
  2. Offering funds to a terrorist organization or person or collecting, preparing, obtaining or facilitating the obtainment of funds for such terrorist organization or person, being aware of such purpose;
  3. Acquiring, taking, managing, investing, possessing, transmitting, transferring, depositing, keeping, using or disposing of funds or caring out any commercial or financial bank transaction although aware that all or part of such funds are collected as a result of a terrorist offence, owned by a terrorist organization or intended for the financing of a terrorist organization, person or offence;
  4. Transferring, transmitting, depositing, or replacing funds for the purpose of concealing or camouflaging their truth, origin or illegal purpose;
  5. Concealing or camouflaging the truth, origin, place, method of disposition, movement and ownership pf the illegal funds or the rights related thereto.
Funds: Assets in whatever form, tangible or intangible, movable or immovable including national currency, foreign currencies, documents or notes evidencing the ownership of those assets or associated rights in any forms including electronic or digital forms or any interests, profits or income originating or earned from these assets.
Illegal Organizations: Organizations whose establishment is criminalized or which exercise a criminalized activity
Financing Illegal Organizations: Any physical or legal action aiming at providing funding to an illegal organization, or any of its activities or its members.
Crime: Money laundering crime and related Predicate Offences, or Financing of Terrorism or Illegal Organizations.
FIU: Financial Intelligence Unit.
Supervisory Authority: Federal and local authorities, which are entrusted by legislation to supervise Financial Institutions, Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions and Non-Profit Organizations or the competent authority in charge of approving the pursuit of an activity or a profession in case a supervisory authority is not assigned by legislations.
Suspicious Transactions: Transactions related to funds for which there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they are earned from any felony or misdemeanor or related to the financing of terrorism or of illegal organizations, whether committed or attempted.
Beneficial Owner: The natural person who owns or exercises effective ultimate control, directly or indirectly, over a client or the natural person on whose behalf a transaction is being conducted or, the natural person who exercises effective ultimate control over a legal person or legal arrangement.
Transaction: All disposal or use of funds or proceeds including for example: deposits, withdrawals, conversion, sales, purchases, lending, swap, mortgage, and donation.
Customer Due Diligence (CDD): The process of identifying or verifying the information of a Client or Beneficial owner, whether a natural or legal person or a legal arrangement, and the nature of its activity and the purpose of the business relationship and the ownership structure and control over it.
Legal Arrangements: A relationship established by means of a contract between two or more parties, including but not limited to trust funds or other similar arrangements.

3.Compliance Officer
Our Compliance Officer is responsible for developing and enforcing the policies and procedures of our AML Policy. The Compliance Officer is required to report any violations of our AML Policy directly to our General Manager. In addition, our he/she is responsible for recording and filing SARs, CTRs and performing an AML Policy audit at least annually.
In accordance with the current legislation requirements Compliance officer within our Company performs the following tasks:
  1. Detect Transactions relating to any Crime;
  2. Review, scrutinize and study records, receive data concerning Suspicious Transactions, and take decisions to either notify the FIU or maintain the Transaction with the reasons for maintaining while maintaining complete confidentiality;
  3. Review the internal rules and procedures relating to combating the Crime and their consistency with the related legislation, assess the extent to which the institution is committed to the application of these rules and procedures, propose what is needed to update and develop these rules and procedures, prepare and submit semi-annual reports on these points to senior management, and send a copy of that report to the relevant Supervisory Authority enclosed with senior management remarks and decisions;
  4. Prepare, execute and document ongoing training and development programs and plans for the company's employees on Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism and Financing of Illegal Organizations, and the means to combat them;
  5. Collaborate with the Supervisory Authority and FIU, provide them with all requested data, and allow their authorized employees to view the necessary records and documents that will allow them to perform their duties.
Compliance Officer is appointed within the Company according to its inner policy and current regulation legislation.

4.Legal services in scope of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing regulations
The practice areas where strict client verification and due diligence requirements must be applied include those practice areas where an instruction is given to act in any of the following activities:
  1. financial transactions such as the buying and selling of real estate, business, company, securities and other assets and property;
  2. managing client money, securities or other assets;
  3. managing of bank, saving or securities accounts;
  4. the formation, structure, re-organization, operation or management of companies and other entities and legal arrangements;
  5. insolvency cases and tax advice;
  6. other transactions involving custody of funds by law firms as stakeholder or as escrow agent or transfers of funds through the firm’s bank account;
  7. acting as an agent in the creation or establishment of legal person;
  8. acting as, or arranging for another person to act as, a director or secretary of a company, a partner of a partnership, or a similar position in relation to other legal persons;
  9. providing a registered office, business address or accommodation, correspondence or administrative address for a company, a partnership or any other legal person or arrangement;
  10. acting as, or arranging for another person to act as, a trustee of an express trust or similar legal arrangement;
  11. acting, or arranging for another person to act, as a nominal shareholder in favor of another person.

5.Client Due Diligence procedures
Our Client Due Diligence procedures is an important part of our AML Policy, and helps us detect suspicious activity in a timely manner and prevent fraud.
Main elements of our Client Due Diligence procedures are (i) Client Identification, (ii) Profiles, (iii) Client Acceptance, (iv) Risk rating, (v) Monitoring, (vi) Investigation and (vii) Documentation.
In order to enter into business relationship with the Company, Client’s identity must be verified, authenticated, and checked against government watchlists. Failure to complete any of these steps will result in our refusal to provide any services or in case of exiting business relationships with their termination.
5.1 Natural person — Prior to signing a contract with a natural person, we attempt to collect, verify, and authenticate the following information:
  1. Full and correct name of person;
  2. Date of birth;
  3. Place of birth;
  4. Nationality;
  5. Citizenship;
  6. Mobile phone number;
  7. EMAIL Address;
  8. Passport number;
  9. Passport issue date;
  10. Passport expiry date;
  11. National identification number (if applicable);
  12. Residential address;
  13. Mailing address;
  14. Country of residence;
  15. Activity area.
5.2. Legal person — Prior to signing a contract with a legal person, we attempt to collect, verify, and authenticate the following information:
  1. Institution legal name;
  2. Employer Identification Number (“EIN”) or any comparable identification number issued by government;
  3. Full legal name (of all account signatories and beneficial owners);
  4. Email address (of all account signatories);
  5. Mobile phone number (of all account signatories);
  6. Address (principal place of business and/or other physical location);
  7. Proof of legal existence (e.g., state certified articles of incorporation or certificate of formation, certified copy of the Memorandum and Articles of Association, location of registered office, proof of good standing, unexpired government-issued business license, trust instrument or other comparable legal documents as applicable);
  8. Contract information of owners, principals, and executive management (as applicable);
  9. Proof of identity (e.g., driver’s license, passport or government-issued ID) for each individual beneficial owner that owns 10% or more, as well as all account signatories; and
  10. Identifying information for each entity beneficial owner that owns 10% or more (see individual customer information collected above for more details).

6.On-going monitoring procedures
On-going monitoring is the ongoing process of tracking and analyzing customer activities to identify potentially suspicious or abnormal behavior. It serves as a proactive measure to detect patterns that might indicate money laundering, terrorist financing, or other financial crimes. The key on-going monitoring procedures include:
Sanction list screening: we verify Client names against lists of people and organizations that are involved in illegal activities on a national and international level.
Viewing the watchlists: we go through lists of individuals and/or entities that could pose risks to our business, such as Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) or those with a history of financial wrongdoing, to ensure our safety.
PEPs and sanction checks: we check by comparing Client names with records of known PEPs and those that have been sanctioned, aiming to uncover any potential risks.
Transaction monitoring: we review Clients' transactions to spot any suspicious activity, like large amounts of cash suddenly appearing, money transfers to risky areas, or any unusual patterns of behavior.

7.Procedures for cash deposit and dealing with third-party payments
This part outlines the procedures and guidelines that we follow to mitigate the risks associated with cash deposits and third-party payments. These measures are designed to prevent Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and other illegal activities in accordance with relevant Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations.
  1. Cash deposit procedures
Customer Identification and due diligence
Prior to accepting any cash deposit, we are committed to conducting thorough Client identification and due diligence procedures. This includes obtaining and verifying the Client's identity through valid government-issued identification documents. If the Client is a business entity, we will identify the beneficial owners and responsible individuals and verify their identities as well.
Large cash transactions
Any cash deposits exceeding the predefined threshold will be subject to enhanced inspection. In such cases, additional documentation may be required to validate the source of funds and the legitimate purpose of the transaction.
Record keeping detailed records of all cash deposits, including customer information, transaction details, and supporting documentation, will be maintained for a specified period in compliance with AML regulations. These records will be made available to relevant authorities upon request.
  1. Third-party payment procedures
Due diligence regarding third parties
When processing payments on behalf of third parties, we undertake rigorous due diligence to ensure the legitimacy of the transaction. This includes verifying the identity of both the payee and the payer and assessing the purpose and nature of the transaction.
Source of funds verification
For payments involving third parties, we will inquire about the source of funds to make sure that the funds are derived from lawful activities. This verification may involve requesting supporting documentation or additional information.
Prohibition of Transactions with High-Risk Third Parties
To minimize risks associated with potential Money Laundering, we refrain from engaging in transactions with third parties that are identified as high risk, including those listed on relevant sanctions lists or watchlists.

8.Identification and reporting of suspicious or unusual transactions
A suspicious or unusual transaction refers to any financial transaction, whether completed or attempted, that gives rise to reasonable suspicion of being related to criminal activities, including Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, fraud, or other illegal activities.
  1. Identification of Suspicious or Unusual Transactions
Transactions that should be subject to heightened scrutiny include, but are not limited to:
  • large cash transactions that appear inconsistent with the Client's profile and business activities;
  • transactions involving countries or entities identified as high-risk or sanctioned by relevant authorities;
  • frequent transactions just below reporting thresholds to evade reporting requirements;
  • transactions lacking an apparent economic or lawful purpose;
  • transactions involving parties with no logical business relationship;
  • transactions involving complex structures designed to obscure beneficial ownership.
Our employees aware of customer behavior that could indicate suspicious activities, such as:
  • unusual and sudden changes in transaction patterns;
  • a client's unwillingness to provide required identification or information;
  • providing false or inconsistent information;
  • transactions inconsistent with the client’s known business or personal activities.

  1. Reporting Process
Any employee who identifies a Suspicious transaction should promptly report about it to the Compliance Officer.
The Compliance Officer will conduct an internal review to determine the validity of the suspicion. If reasonable grounds exist, the specialist will proceed with the reporting process.
Reports on suspicious or unusual transactions will be submitted to the goAML portal of FIU as required by relevant laws and regulations.
All reports, findings, and related documentation will be maintained securely and confidentially in accordance with data protection and legal requirements. Such records may be subject to disclosure to appropriate authorities.

9.Record-keeping
Client due diligence records: we will maintain accurate and up-to-date records of Client identification documents, risk assessments, and ongoing monitoring activities. These records will include customer identification information, transaction history, and any additional documentation obtained during the due diligence process.
Transaction records: detailed records of all transactions will be maintained, including the date, amount, parties involved, and the purpose of the transaction. Any unusual or suspicious transactions will be flagged and documented appropriately.
Correspondence and communication: records of all communications and correspondences related to Client’s transactions and due diligence will be retained. This includes emails and any other written communication.
Retention Period: all records will be retained for a minimum period of 6 years. After the retention period has passed, records will be securely disposed ensuring confidentiality and data security.

10.Staff training
Staff training is an integral aspect of our AML policy. By providing employees with the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to identify and prevent Money Laundering activities, we enhance our organization's ability to operate in a responsible, compliant, and ethical manner.
Training staff members on Money Laundering helps them to understand its concept, related implications, and the potential legal and reputational consequences for the Company. This awareness promotes a sense of responsibility among employees to actively participate in AML efforts.
Through effective training, employees become better equipped to recognize unusual and potentially suspicious transactions or behaviors. Training enhances their ability to spot red flags, inconsistencies, or patterns that might indicate money laundering activities.
Including AML training as part of the onboarding process for new employees ensures that they receive the necessary information from the outset. This promotes consistency in understanding and application of AML policies across all levels of the Company.
Training can take many forms and it is not restricted to the training delivered in-house. It includes attendance of conferences, seminars, various courses, including online courses, review of AML publications and participation in group discussions related to AML topics.


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