Blocking accounts for money laundering.

On November 18 of this year, the Senate of the Republic approved the decree that adds Chapter IV Bis to the fifth title of the Law on Credit Institutions, in a change that seeks to give greater powers to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to combat money laundering.

The explanatory memorandum to this Reform project considers that criminal groups have acquired the capacity to engage in a wide range of economic activities through the use of illegal money, which is why it is considered necessary to establish mechanisms to promote the detection, prevention and blocking of operations carried out with resources of illicit origin, better known as money laundering.

In this regard, he stresses that the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, currently conducts investigations with the purpose of preventing and detecting operations that may encourage the commission of crimes such as the financing of terrorism and operations with resources from illicit sources, to proceed accordingly to issue the list of blocked persons.

The Reform proposal envisages the inclusion of a Procedure for Inclusion and Guarantee of Hearing of persons included in the list of blocked persons, which would essentially provide for the following:

• Incorporate a procedure whereby the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit could include a person on the list of blocked persons when it has sufficient evidence that he or she is involved in terrorist financing offences, operations with resources of illicit origin or those associated with the offences referred to.

• Blocked persons shall have the right to guarantee a hearing before the Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit, under the following procedure:

1. At the request of the person concerned, a hearing shall be held to ensure that, within 10 working days of the day on which the relevant credit institution has notified him of the grounds, cause or causes of their inclusion in the list of blocked persons, appear at the home of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and express in writing or orally what is in their interest.

• The Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit may, ex officio or at the request of a party, extend the period of 10 working days specified above.

• A period of 15 working days following the completion of the relevant file shall be allowed after the time limit for submitting evidence or making submissions, for the Holder of the Financial Intelligence Unit to issue an administrative resolution justifying and motivating the inclusion of the data subject in the list of blocked persons and whether or not it should be deleted, and even in the same resolution the termination of domain of blocked resources may be promoted through the procedure.

• The decision shall be notified to the party concerned ex officio within 10 working days of its issue.

• It is provided that the decision issued by the Financial Intelligence Unit may be challenged before the Federal Administrative Court.

Finally, it is provided that when the inclusion in the list has been on the occasion of a resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations, the process of divestiture will be carried out as stipulated by the committee for which the inclusion has been designated.

In Bandala | Díaz | García we underline the importance of sizing the scope that can have the reform in comment, by virtue of which initially gives an extraordinary faculty to the Financial Intelligence Unit to freeze bank accounts from “sufficient evidence” that the holder of the funds carries out illegal activities (money laundering) or that the resources of the funds have an illegal origin, and all this without a court order, a situation which undoubtedly, It is contrary to the principle of legal certainty which must be enjoyed by all the governed.

LEGAL NOTICE

The main purpose of this information is to provide guidance to the general public. It does not replace the provisions of applicable law. Nor does it replace the specialized legal advice or consultancy that can be offered by any of the lawyers and/or accountants of Bandala | Díaz | García