Dawood, the only Indian listed in the UK Financial Sanctions

Research:Saurabh Goenka

India's most wanted criminal and underworld don- Dawood Ibrahim is the only Indian to be listed in theUK Financial Sanctions list. The repercussions of being listed are that - firstly, Financial Sanctions can apply to individuals, entities and governments, who may be resident in the UK or abroad.

Secondly, a targeted asset freeze usually prohibits anyone from dealing with funds or economic resources belonging to or owned, held or controlled by a designated person, and it also prohibits anyone from making funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly, to or for the benefit of a designated person.

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Interesting listed points

It can interestingly be noted that there are 261 individuals and 80 organisations in the “ISIL and Al-Qaida Organisations’’ category under which the name of Dawood Ibrahim is included.

There are several Pakistani individuals and organisations which are part of this sanction list including - Hizbul Mujahidin, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Hafiz Saeed.

Dawood Ibrahim was placed in this sanction list for the first time on 7th Nov 2003. And he is currently the only person of Indian origin who has been placed on the list.

The sanction list is categorised in various regimes and includes the following number of individuals in each category:

Afghanistan- 136
Belarus- 4
Burundi- 4
Central African Republic- 11
The Democratic Republic of the Congo- 47
Egypt- 15
Iran (Human Rights)- 82
Iran (Nuclear Proliferation)- 58
Iraq- 86
Libya- 38
North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)- 100
Republic of Guinea- 5
Republic of Guinea-Bissau- 21
Somalia- 13
South Sudan- 6
Sudan- 4
Syria- 255
Terrorism and Terrorist Financing- 18
The ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida organisations- 261
Tunisia- 48
UK Freezing Orders- 2
Ukraine(Misappropriation)- 15
Ukraine(Sovereignty)- 153
Yemen- 5
Zimbabwe- 2

Business and Finances of Dawood

It is said that Dawood has a business interest in 16 countries in 5 continents including Europe, Africa and South Asia. His businesses are spread over India, Pakistan, UK, Germany, Turkey, France, Spain, Morocco, Cyprus, UAE, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

As per Forbes 2015 estimates his net worth was at $6.7 billion, which places him above people like Gautam Adani and Sunil Mittal in terms of net worth. Also, Dawood is the biggest operator of an international betting syndicate. His betting syndicate derives strength from his hawala operation based out of Dubai.

Dawood's business interests include terror funding, drug trafficking and counterfeiting. However, in a dossier created by the investigators, the officials have stated that hiscurrent focus of the businessis to promote and expand the business of conflict diamonds (a term used for a diamond mined in a war zone) in Africa and Dubai.

Dawood is said to have assets worth USD 450 million in the UK alone with more than 50 properties in UAE and UK.