Aruba

Capital city:                Oranjestad   
Currency:                    Aruban florin (AWG)   
Population:               104,822   
Language:                  Dutch    
GDP:                            USD$3 billion
GDP per capita:        USD$28,620

Aruba is a Dutch island in the Caribbean and is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (along with the Netherlands, Curacao and Sint Maarten). Aruba is located in the southern Caribbean Sea (29 km north of Venezuela) and is part of the ABC islands (along with Bonaire and Curacao).

Aruba is both a transhipment point for drugs from South America bound for the United States and Europe, and for currency flowing in the opposite direction. Money laundering is primarily related to proceeds from illegal narcotics by domestic and foreign criminal organisations and occurs through real estate purchases and international tax shelters. 

Aruba’s money laundering laws do not cover proceeds generated from counterfeiting and piracy of products, insider trading, market manipulation, many types of environmental crimes, or fraud. 

The Aruba Exempt Corporation (AEC) is fully tax exempt if used for:

• Finance activities (includes traditional lending plus cash management, treasury and hedging), 
• Holding activities (i.e. operating as a holding company),  
• Portfolio investment activities (investment trading of equities and financial instruments), 
• IP licensing activities (including copyrights, trade name rights, brand names, patent rights, image rights, musical compositions, photographs, software, inventions, etc.