UAE Law and Practice Contributed by: Stuart Paterson, Janine Mallis, Tania Forichon and Elif Eren Ozenir, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP
4. Pleas and Defences 4.1 White-Collar Defences
Sanctions include fines of up to AED500,000 and/or imprisonment. Federal Decree-Law No 24 of 2023 on Combating Human Trafficking penalises conduct including sexual exploitation, forced labour, organ trafficking, slavery and servitude. Sanctions include a minimum fine of AED1 million and a minimum of five years’ imprisonment. 3.15 Artificial Intelligence and Automation Misuse There are no specific criminal offences relating to the misuse of AI, algorithmic trading, or automated deci - sion-making in financial or commercial contexts in the UAE. The Penal Code and Cybercrimes Law indirectly criminalise AI misuse such as AI-generated fraud or deepfakes (see 3.1 Criminal Company Law and Cor- porate Fraud and 3.9 Cybercrimes, Computer Fraud and Protection of Company Secrets ). 3.16 Crypto-Assets and Digital Currency Crimes While not specifically enacted to tackle cryptocurrency fraud, the Cybercrimes Law contains many offences commonly committed by crypto-fraudsters, including hacking and the fabrication of websites, electronic mail and electronic accounts. It also criminalises unli - censed cryptocurrency trading and cryptocurrency’s unauthorised/unlicensed marketing. Crypto-assets are classified based on their function rather than a single legal category. Crypto-assets classified as security tokens are regulated (depend - ing on their jurisdiction) by the Securities and Com - modities Authority in the UAE, the Virtual Asset Regu - latory Authority in Dubai, and the DFSA or FSRA in the DIFC and ADGM free zones respectively. Entities must secure a licence from each of these authorities to conduct financial services involving crypto-tokens. The UAE’s broader civil and criminal regime also applies to crypto-asset activities. Regulated compa - nies dealing with crypto-assets classified as securities or financial instruments must comply with the UAE’s general AML/CFT laws.
There are no uniform or common defences for white- collar offences in the UAE. The existence of an effec - tive compliance programme in particular is not a defence to a white-collar crime, although regulated entities may incur lower sanctions where an offence has occurred despite the existence of a robust com - pliance programme. 4.2 De Minimis There is no de minimis threshold for bribery offences. 4.3 Plea Agreements, Co-Operation, Self- Disclosure and Leniency The latest Criminal Procedural Law introduced a plea- bargaining mechanism for misdemeanours and felonies. Although plea bargaining does not apply to certain offences (Article 361), it does apply to felonies punish - able by temporary imprisonment and to their insepa - rably associated misdemeanours (Article 369). A defendant accepting a plea bargain must hand over any objects or funds involved in or resulting from the criminal offence, where these are in the defendant’s direct or indirect possession (Article 377). The plea bargain will have no effect on civil damages accruing to the victim (Article 380). Under Article 232 of the Penal Code, a person who conspires to commit a crime will be exempt from the relevant punishments if they report the conspiracy and the participants to the competent authorities before the commission of any of the specified crimes. Similarly, under Article 284, if a briber or bribe-taker informs the judicial or administrative authorities about the crime before the crime is discovered, the briber or bribe-taker will be exempted from punishment. Under Article 22 (6) of the AML Law, the court may commute or set aside the sentence against any perpe - trator of a money-laundering crime if they provide the judicial or administrative authorities with information relating to a money-laundering offence and the infor - mation provided leads to the discovery of a crime, the identification of its perpetrators or their arrest.
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