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Mexico Sets Limits on U.S. Cash Deposits
By Colby Adams
printThe Mexican Finance Ministry Tuesday unveiled strict new limits on cash deposits of U.S. dollars in efforts to curb the flow of illicit cash into the financial system from drug traffickers. Under the measures, customers of Mexican banks will be prohibited from depositing more than $4,000 in cash per month, and non-accountholders will be limited to $300 in cash deposits per day, and $1,500 per month. The regulations will also prevent tourists from exchanging more than $1,500 into pesos per month, except in designated tourist areas and sections of the U.S.-Mexico border. "In recent years, banking institutions have received significant...
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The recent joint effort between the U.S. and Mexico in the arrest of Sinaloa Cartel head Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman can be seen as a sign of renewed cooperation between investigators in both countries after a yearlong lull.
Mexico's partial reversal of 2010 limits on U.S. dollar deposits will make it easier for narcotics traffickers to launder drug proceeds through Mexican banks, according to current and former investigators.
Should suspicions that drug traffickers infiltrated the compliance department of a U.S.-owned bank in Mexico prove valid, it won't be the first example of such a scheme, or the last.
In internal reviews and an ongoing criminal and regulatory investigation, Citigroup employees and Mexican officials have privately voiced concerns that drug traffickers may have infiltrated Banamex's anti-money laundering department, say sources.
When imagining how dirty money is moved around the country, "think of FedEx," says Joseph Burke, chief of the National Bulk Cash Smuggling Center in Vermont. The center is tasked with tracing the sometimes elaborate path of drug proceeds from point-of-sale to the bank teller's window.
In response to Mexico's restrictions on U.S. dollar deposits, drug traffickers have turned to funneling dirty money through accounts opened for seemingly legitimate businesses, American officials warned Wednesday.
Money launderers working on behalf of Mexican cartels have moved southward after a deferred prosecution agreement between Western Union and Arizona gave investigators unprecedented access to remittance data in Northern Mexico, according to Vince Piano.
Plans to attract foreign capital and expertise to Mexico's oil sector could give organized crime groups and corrupt officials an opportunity to layer and integrate dirty money, say industry analysts.
Trade-based schemes and bulk cash smuggling are among the most common tactics used by international money launderers, according to Joseph Gallion, the deputy assistant director of the Financial, Narcotics and Special Operations Division for the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Mexican cartel members are exploiting mirror accounts in the United States and Mexico to launder money and evade U.S. dollar deposit restrictions, financial regulators said Thursday.
State prosecutors along the U.S.-Mexico border are studying whether drug traffickers are acting as subagents for Mexican banks that front payments on behalf of American money services businesses.
Key features of an anti-money laundering strategy to combat drug trafficking organizations pitched last year by Mexican officials may ultimately be dropped by lawmakers, say industry advisors.
Exemptions for Mexican hotels and other businesses from Mexico's limits on U.S. dollar deposits can be readily exploited by narco-traffickers and money launderers, say compliance professionals.
Thousands of lightly regulated currency exchange centers in Mexico are suspected of laundering criminal proceeds for drug trafficking organizations, according to analysts and former Mexican government officials.
Despite reports that 30 percent of Mexico's currency is derived from illicit funds, many compliance officers are just now waking up to the reality of the country's extensive money laundering problems, according to an AML consultant who works with MSBs.
Mexico's Ministry of Finance is planning to issue new regulations on mortgage and property finance companies in an effort to curtail money laundering through property loans, a Mexican daily newspaper reported Monday.
Crackdowns on currency exchange and bond swap businesses in Mexico and Venezuela are prompting some U.S. banks to turn away secondary market businesses in Latin America even when they operate legitimately, say consultants.
It seems incongruous: even as Mexico's problems with drug trafficking, money laundering and violence have worsened in unprecedented ways, the Latin American economy's ability to attract foreign investors has grown.
Mexico President Felipe Calderon introduced a bevy of measures Thursday designed to crimp the flow of illicit drug proceeds from entering the country's financial system, including by limiting cash transactions on purchasing aircraft, vehicles, and real estate.