Joint UAE-US investigation finds American lawyer Asim Ghafoor guilty of money laundering, tax evasion 

Joint UAE-US investigation finds American lawyer Asim Ghafoor guilty of money laundering, tax evasion 

DUBAI: A joint investigation between the UAE and the US found that convicted American lawyer Asim Ghafoor had transferred $4.9 million through UAE banks with the intent to conceal or disguise the nature and origin of the funds, according to a statement from the UAE Embassy in Washington DC. The UAE had launched an investigation into Ghafoor’s activities in 2020 after receiving an official request for assistance from the US Embassy in Abu Dhabi on behalf of the US Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations Division, UAE national Gulf News reported. The two countries have been sharing information on Ghafoor’s case for more than two years, the report added. Despite not being a UAE resident, Ghafoor had made dozens of cash deposit and debit transactions on his accounts, through ATMs based in the country by an unidentified third party using his bank cards, the statement said. The UAE-US investigation collected evidence that showed that the transfers on the accounts were inconsistent with the original purpose for which they were opened; they were being used with the intent to conceal or disguise the nature and origin of the funds obtained from illegal