In the fight against financial crime, we can count suspicious transaction reports, investigations, inspections and regulatory penalties. All matter. But ultimately, two questions tell us whether a system truly works: are we prosecuting criminals, and are we taking away their illicit profits and returning that money to their victims?
These questions will be especially relevant in Abu Dhabi, with the UAE currently hosting the 15th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, bringing together governments, law enforcement, international organisations and experts to consider how to advance criminal justice and strengthen the rule of law in an increasingly digital age. Asset recovery deserves to be at the heart of that discussion.
Globally, the figures remain deeply concerning. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that less than 1 per cent of criminal proceeds are ever recovered. The Financial Action Task Force has consequently placed growing emphasis on asset recovery as the real test of whether national systems deliver results.
The reason is simple: financial crime is a business. Criminals commit fraud, corruption, trafficking and cybercrime because they expect to profit. If we prosecute an individual but let the proceeds remain hidden, we have done only half the job. And confiscation itself isn’t the end point – taking money from criminals deprives them of their gains, but returning it to those who suffered the loss helps repair the damage the crime caused.
This distinction has become central to the UAE’s approach. When our leadership undertook a fundamental strengthening of the country’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing system, a whole-of-government approach was adopted with the creation of the General Secretariat of the National AML/CFT Committee as its centralised co-ordinating body. Today, 90 organisations are part of the national team working tirelessly to protect our economy and society from the harms of financial crime.
Asset recovery was made a strategic priority, and we have achieved real results. Domestic confiscations rose from about Dh1 billion ($272.3 million) in 2022 to more than Dh2.2 billion in 2023. Across 2024 and last year, they exceeded Dh8 billion in total.
But the figure I find most telling is different: between 2021 and last year, the UAE returned Dh1.19 billion to victims of crime, including Dh556.6 million last year alone. These are more than just statistics – behind every dirham returned is a defrauded person, a cheated company or taxpayers who bore a loss.
This progress wasn’t accidental.
First, asset recovery had to become a national priority. Second, we had to recognise that no single institution can deliver it alone. Effective recovery means tracing criminal property, freezing or seizing it quickly, securing confiscation through the courts, managing the assets and ultimately returning them – each stage often involving different authorities, which makes co-ordination essential. Through the General Secretariat, we’ve worked closely with the Ministry of Justice, the Financial Intelligence Unit, prosecutors, law enforcement and supervisors to strengthen the entire cycle.
We’ve also strengthened the legal framework. Federal Decree-Law No 10 of 2025 and its implementing regulations give authorities enhanced tools to act against criminal property, including powers for the Financial Intelligence Unit and supervisory authorities to freeze funds across banks, designated non-financial businesses and virtual asset service providers. Speed matters: a criminal transaction can cross several jurisdictions in seconds, while a traditional investigation can take months or years. If authorities can’t move fast, the money may already be gone.
This brings us to the greatest challenge: international co-operation.
The FATF has repeatedly flagged the difficulty of cross-border financial crime, but for the UAE, our international position is also an opportunity. We are one of the world’s most globally connected economies, with an overwhelmingly international population and a financial system linking East and West. Inevitably, some crimes encountered here originate overseas or have victims elsewhere. Our response is simple: borders should not protect criminals. When criminal assets sit in the UAE, we want to work with international partners to identify, restrain, confiscate and return them wherever the law allows.
This creates a virtuous circle. When a country sees assets recovered through co-operation with the UAE and returned to its citizens, co-operation becomes tangible – building trust, encouraging information-sharing, strengthening investigations and ultimately producing more prosecutions and recoveries.
This is why the UAE invests heavily in bilateral relationships and multilateral approaches alike, including our co-operation with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which had more than 3,600 active investigations at the end of last year involving over €67 billion ($76.73 billion) in estimated damage. Cases such as Operation Admiral, spanning dozens of countries including the UAE, show why no jurisdiction can tackle serious financial crime alone.
This is the point I hope delegates in Abu Dhabi will consider. We must follow the money, freeze it before it disappears, confiscate it so crime doesn’t pay and return it to those from whom it was stolen. Behind the technical language of beneficial ownership, freezing orders and mutual legal assistance are victims. The UAE doesn’t just want a system that satisfies international standards – we want one that delivers justice: criminals prosecuted, profits removed, victims compensated.
Follow the money. Take away the illicit profit. Return it to the victim. That is how the fight against financial crime becomes a system that delivers justice.
