Dubai Denies Laundering Pirate Ransoms

Dubai's deputy police chief denied a report that pirates have laundered ransom money through banks in the Gulf city-state, according to a local newspaper.

Maj. Gen. Khamis Mattar al-Mazeina was responding to Tuesday's report in British newspaper The Independent that quoted investigators hired by the shipping industry as saying organized piracy syndicates operating in Dubai and other Gulf states have laundered large amounts of pirate ransom money.

Somali pirates in the past told The Associated Press that they receive help from people in Dubai, a Mideast banking hub that has a history of moving money used to finance terrorism and other illicit activities.

"Money for Somali and Gulf of Aden pirates has not been laundered in Dubai," al-Mazeina said Wednesday in an interview with Al Emirate Al Youm newspaper, which has close ties to Dubai's ruling family. "The United Arab Emirates is the only country in the region that has a record of prosecuting money laundering."

Al-Mazeina said Dubai has strict laws to prevent money laundering, including a statute that subjects any sum more than about $11,000 to surveillance to determine whether it is illicit.

In the past year, pirates have hijacked and attacked dozens of ships in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, a key shipping lane linking Asia via the Suez Canal to Europe. Piracy experts estimate that the seafaring gangs took in about $80 million in ransom payments in 2008.

A 2004 U.S. investigation found that most of the $400,000 spent on the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States passed through bank accounts in the Emirates. Since then, the U.S. Treasury Department has worked with the Emirati government to tighten financial oversight and has generally praised the country's efforts.