The FIU has filed 115 complaints for money laundering, reported the Treasury

The Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP), has filed 115 complaints for money laundering and predicate offenses so far this year, according to its Activity Report as of October.

The data presented by the unit, headed by Pablo Gómez Álvarez, showed that there are a total of 977 subjects involved in these complaints for money laundering and their preceding crimes before the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR), as well as the incorporation of some of these to the List of Blocked Persons as a precautionary measure.

In this way, the FIU is close to the amount of total complaints that were presented last year, which totaled 133 folders; however, it would still be below the historical amount of 2019 of 161 complaints.

In the detail of the report it was observed that it was in July when more people were denounced, with a total of 200; while in January complaints were filed against eight people.

Of the complaints filed, 36 were for tax fraud, where 163 people were denounced; while for embezzlement 35 folders were presented, where there were 535 subjects involved.

Other crimes that added more complaints and involved were those against health, which generated 17 complaints with 95 involved, while illicit enrichment totaled eight complaints, with 102 subjects mentioned in them.

blocked accounts

Regarding the list of people with blocked accounts, the UIF explained that between January and October of this year, 116 people have been included, so that this list already has 6,608 records, both for individuals and legal entities.

“The FIU has included in the List of Blocked Persons (LPB) 8,609 subjects, both individuals and legal entities. Of the total, 2,001 have been removed from the list. Currently there are 6,608 subjects in LPB”, he added.

In this way, 37,601 accounts are blocked, which can be modified according to the unblocking derived from the filing of amparo and/or hearing guarantee lawsuits. In turn, these accounts total an amount of 406.5 million pesos.

vulnerable activities

In the aforementioned period, the FIU indicated that it has received 8.07 million notices regarding vulnerable activities, that is, activities carried out by financial entities and other activities such as gambling, works of art, receipt of donations, shielding services, trade outside, among others.

The foregoing would be the highest amount recorded to date, and with which 49 million 452,259 notices have accumulated since November 2013, when the Federal Law for the Prevention and Identification of Operations with Resources of Illicit Origin entered into force.

“Once the information is received, a process of cleaning and standardizing all the records is implemented. This allows for statistical and mathematical analysis on all the subjects for which financial information is available. Subsequently, the reports and notices are analyzed to distinguish suspicious operations. The FIU disseminates intelligence reports and other useful documents to detect operations probably related to money laundering or terrorist financing. As a result, it presents the complaints to the competent authorities, incorporates subjects to the List of Blocked Persons and, where appropriate, presents hearings,” explained the FIU.

ana.martinez@eleconomista.mx