The Ministry of Commerce said that it has found incorrect practices consisting of filing suspicion reports to financial investigations without reasonable grounds for suspicion.

The Ministry pointed out that, through coordination with the General Administration of Financial Investigations as part of measuring the quality level of suspicion reports issued by practitioners of the activity of precious metals and gemstone traders, it was found that there were incorrect practices manifested in some traders filing suspicion reports with financial investigations without reasonable grounds for suspicion.

It added that it had previously published a guidance manual for precious metals and gemstone traders regarding anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, and counter-proliferation financing requirements, which included a number of red flags that can be used as guidance when evaluating transactions and filing suspicion reports.

The Ministry requested precious metals and gemstone traders to adhere to filing suspicion reports with the General Administration of Financial Investigations whenever reasonable indicators and grounds for suspicion exist, provided that reporting suspicious transactions is based on logical suspicion indicators.