Q: I believe that I am a victim of a crypto scam. I met a girl on tinder on 17/06/21 and after talking, we exchanged numbers. She onboarded me to Binance using step-by-step screenshots, helping me to set up an account. She then asked me to set up an account on another platform which I now believe is a fake platform. Over a period of three months, she consistently encouraged me to deposit more and more money, and I was making huge returns. In total, I deposited around 250k USD and supposedly had returns of 850k USD. But just recently when I tried to withdraw some of this, my withdrawal was declined and customer services told me I had to pay 150k USD in tax in order to access these funds. I was very suspicious now and refused to pay. It was at this point that customer service stopped replying to me. I hope I can recoup some of the losses and this person can be brought to justice.

Q: Dear fellow colleagues, A client of mine, resident in Dubai, would like to open a criminal case against an expat who is not anymore in Dubai. The "gentleman" stole 8.3 bitcoins (!) promising a huge return in interest (5% per month, still advertised on the internet), then he stole a client's database with more than 600 passports, phone numbers, signatures... Breach of trust, theft, IT crime, and so on... We are looking for a colleague in the UAE to give a POA and open one or more criminal cases, following the case in the court up to the first instance. The goal is to have a sentence, also knowing that the gentleman is no more in Dubai. Thank you Dr W. F.

Q: What is the best way to recover money from a cryptocurrency exchange scam? The platform I'm using to trade cryptocurrency is based in Singapore but operated by Chinese people. I have invested 150k AED into it, coming all from my credit cards. When I wanted to withdraw money, the customer service said that I need to pay taxes on the profit amount. After paying taxes to them, they are now saying the financial intelligence department found that my account is abnormal and suspected of money laundering due to recent frequent trades and excessive txn volume. They want me to deposit 20% of my account amt (10k USD) within a week to prove that I didn't launder money, or it will be frozen and will report me to the FI dept. Can you please advise if this is legal according to the laws and regulations of Singapore? I don't have money anymore to pay them and I think it's just a scam. The platform recently had the system upgraded and changed; no license, no t&cs, no physical address, no phone number. Shall I report to the police now?

Q: Dear sir/madam, It is related to cryptocurrency. On 26th Jan 2022, I made a deal on Binance exchange for selling crypto tokens worth AED 100.000 to a person (buyer). Accordingly, I received the money and the crypto tokens were released. But the money I received was from her sister's account as the buyer told me. I asked for the Emirates ID of both persons and released the cryptocurrency to the buyer in a good faith. On 31st Jan 2022, I came to know that the party (her sister) who had transferred money to my bank had become a victim of e-commerce fraud, and her account was hacked by a Binance buyer who has transferred money to me on the pretext of other bank account holder. My bank account has been frozen upon complaint from the other party whose bank details were compromised and I am having a travel ban currently. I also registered an e-crime complaint on 1st Feb 2022. Please get in touch if you can assist in removing the travel ban.

Q: Good day, We are a group of people and residents of the UAE who invested in an international company that called themselves an investing company and promised their investors a big return. In the end, we realized that the company was a scheme/pyramid, but unfortunately, it was late as we faced a company scam. And we lost a lot of money. Cases were opened all over the world against them. The leaders of the company who called them "10* stars" were residents of the UAE; some of them still live here and they introduced us to Finiko schemes. We need advice on where to start the case in the UAE and what is the right department to go to as the partners who were the main people of the company are hiding in the UAE with all the money? Kindly note that all investments were done by crypto in bitcoin currency. All victims have the evidence. We have sent complaints to e-crime, but the applications of all the victims got rejected and we cannot understand why. Thanks in advance!

Q: Hello Sir My son is trading in cryptocurrency, online trading, and Binance exchange, with no personal contact. A  drug dealer purchased crypto & used that money for drug trafficking. So the police arrested my son also and the investigation is under process. What is the maximum time for investigation and when will it be transferred to the court? How much time will it take?

Q: I believe that I am a victim of a crypto scam. I met a girl on a dating app in December and she onboarded me to a crypto platform helping me invest using step-by-step screenshots. I was consistently asked to deposit USD 20k money, however, raised USD 5k and she deposited USD 15k in my crypto account. My withdrawal was declined and customer services asked me to pay 12k USD in tax on profit made in order to access these funds. I arranged 9k and the lady paid 3k for me. Since 3k was not from my account, customer service asked me to pay it from my account which I duly did. Then I was asked to deposit USD 15k as security since the initial funds were from someone else. I did that and my withdrawal got approved but I was informed that the fund release is stuck as I need to pay USD 8.3k as a large channel fee and I would be upgraded to a premium client. Post this payment, now I am being asked for USD 6.3k as a miner's fee on my whole account balance to get my withdrawal

مع صدور قرار مجلس الوزراء رقم (58) لسنة (2020) في شان تنظيم إجراءات المستفيد الحقيقي، ومدى مساهمته في الحد من جريمة غسيل الأموال و تمويل الإرهاب، لا بد بدايةً من معرفة مفهوم غسيل الأموال و تمويل الإرهاب. تُعرَّف عملية غسل الأموال بأنها كل معاملة مالية أو مصرفية تهدف إلى إخفاء أو تغيير هوية الأموال المتحصلة بطرق غير قانونية، وذلك بتمريرها عبر النظام المالي والمصرفي لكي تظهر على أنها نابعة من مصادر شرعية، و من ثَمَّ إعادة ضخها واستثمارها بشكل قانوني مغاير لحقيقتها.

The new law is applicable to all entities dealing with virtual assets that are set up on the mainland as well as free zones, including special development zones. However, it does not apply to the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), which will have its own set of rules and regulations governing all virtual assets entities registered with the DIFC.

The UAE Penal Code, like all other laws, addresses the crime of fraud in Article 399 of the UAE Federal Penal Code, which stipulates that whoever seizes, for himself or another, a movable property, or obtains a document or signature thereon, cancellation or destruction thereof or amendment thereto by fraudulent means, or by assuming a false name or capacity, where such an act leads to deception of a victim and leads him to surrender shall be punished by imprisonment or fine.

Blackwater International, a leading private security and investigative company, has established a reputation for handling complex and high-stakes operations. One of the most challenging areas the company has ventured into is cryptocurrency asset recovery. This case study explores a recent successful recovery operation conducted by Blackwater International, highlighting their methodology, challenges faced, and the impact of their efforts.

تعتبر الجرائم الإلكترونية من أبرز التحديات القانونية في العصر الحديث، حيث تزايدت الأنشطة الإجرامية التي يتم ارتكابها عبر الإنترنت، ما يجعلها تشكل تهديدًا للأفراد والمجتمعات والدول. ومع تزايد الاعتماد على التكنولوجيا في مختلف المجالات في دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة، أصبحت مكافحة الجرائم الإلكترونية واحدة من الأولويات التشريعية في الدولة. سنعرض في هذا المقال تحليلًا قانونيًا معمقًا للجرائم الإلكترونية في الإمارات، بدءًا من التعريف وصولًا إلى التشريعات الخاصة بمكافحتها.

This Law promulgates the Federal Penal Code (Criminal Law) of the United Arab Emirates. Crimes and chastisement punishments shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of this Law and other penal codes.

The law defines the crimes related to money laundering, commitments and the jurisdictions of the governmental authorities, and the sanctions against perpetrators of money laundering.