Four plead not guilty in biggest ever UAE money laundering case

Four individuals have pleaded not guilty in a Dubai court to charges of laundering around £150 million ($240 million) linked to an alleged tax scam.

The Briton, Indian, Pakistani and Emirati are accused, along with six companies, of laundering the funds through bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in what is the federation's biggest-ever money laundering case.

Following a two-year investigation, prosecutors allege that the suspects exported goods from the UK to other parts of Europe using bogus sales contracts to falsely inflate their value. They then imported the items back into the UK and recovered tax on the goods from HM Revenue & Customs.

They are also accused of regularly changing the names of their companies and their commercial activities in order to camouflage the operation from regulators.

Furthermore, the prosecution contests that they submitted falsified documents to the UAE Central Bank in order to justify 18 million dirhams ($4.9 million) found in one of the companies' accounts.