Saudi Arabia's Public Prosecutor leads coalition of authorities to fight money laundering

RIYADH: The training program on International Developments in Combating Money Laundering, held at the Public Prosecution agency in Riyadh with the participation of international experts from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in cooperation with Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS), concluded on Saturday under the patronage of Saudi Arabia’s Attorney General Sheikh Saud Al-Mua’jab.

Professionals from the Supreme Judicial Council, the Ministry of Interior, the security services and the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), as well as members of the Public Prosecution and a number of advisers in specialized departments, participated in the program.

Anti-money laundering experts from the Law department at CWRU reviewed a number of key themes and discussed the economic and political impacts of money laundering, mechanisms to discover the stages of money laundering in financial institutions, developments in the procedures of inference and investigation of money laundering crimes, and methods to monitor money laundering using modern technology, such as Bitcoin.

Professor Bill Clonger stressed the importance of adopting such training programs for all professionals in the field of combating money laundering.

For his part, Al-Mua’jab explained that money laundering had become one of the most important issues to authorities given its economic and security dimensions.

Al-Mua’jab said the agency sought to develop general plans that met the requirements of the next phase for working to combat money laundering in all economic and commercial outlets.

“During 2019, the Public Prosecution carried out over 15 training programs in the Kingdom and abroad on money laundering investigation and prosecution mechanisms for members of the agency, and heads of money laundering departments in branch offices,” Al-Mua’jab explained, highlighting that about 215 members of the Public Prosecution and experts from across the Kingdom participated in the programs.

He added that the Public Prosecution was also set to implement in early 2020 an international program in cooperation with a specialized US organization. The program aims to develop the skills of prosecutors in the field of combating money laundering.