The European Union has added Saudi Arabia to a blacklist of nations that it considers are havens for dirty money.
Along with Panama and four US territories, Saudi has been added to the list due to its lax controls on the financing of terrorism and money laundering. Yesterday’s announcement is a part of a big crackdown on international money laundering after a number of scandals involving EU banks.
Despite the move being a positive one for global security, several countries including the UK and US have criticised the ban, stating concerns about their economic relations with the Saudi kingdom, based on oil and arms. The EU noted that a lot of pressure had been put on them not to include the country, but that the risk was too great to ignore.
The Saudi government has stated its disappointment at the decision stating that “Saudi Arabia’s commitment to combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism is a strategic priority.
The EU blacklist contains a total of 23 jurisdictions including Libya, Afghanistan, North Korea, Iraq, and Syria- all of which were added due to their ‘strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing regimes”.
Money laundering is a big problem in the oil-rich kingdom yet it is a major importer of goods and weapons from the EU and a number of EU banks operate within its borders. The country is also widely considered as the most prolific sponsor of Islamist terrorism and allegedly provides support for groups such as Taliban Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the Al-Nursa Front.
The inclusion of Saudia Arabia on the blacklist was first mentioned in a draft on January 25th, two weeks before Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama made an official state visit to the Kingdom. He met with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saudi, the Chief of the Saudi Fund of Development and he signed a number of agreements of cooperation between the two countries. These agreements are said to include economic, touristic, and investment agreements and were dubbed as “important agreements between the two countries”.
Albania has also been widely criticised for its lax measures to combat money laundering stating that whilst it appears the government have a good understanding of what money laundering is and how to prevent it, for some reason they choose not to implement the necessary measures. In addition to this, the country is repeatedly named as a “haven” for money laundering due to its lax rules, large informal economy, lack of prosecutions, and the laissez faire attitude of politicians, some of whom are implicated in money laundering themselves.
Saudi Arabia has also found itself under international scrutiny as mounting evidence concludes that the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was ordered by the state, in particular Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
