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U.S. law enforcement officials are increasingly focusing their attention on the use by Mexican drug cartels of shell companies and corporate bank accounts in China and Hong Kong to launder proceeds from narcotics sales, sources told ACAMS moneylaundering.com.
Domestic banks and U.S.-headquartered affiliates in Mexico have increased their supply of know-your-customer and transactional information to institutions in the United States under a bilateral agreement finalized last year, say sources.
Attempts to smuggle cash from Texas into Mexico have spiked following the country's decision last year to partially lift a cap on U.S. dollar deposits, according to federal investigators.
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.
Federal investigators believe that sales of synthetic cannabinoid products could have links to terrorist financing and criminal syndicates, according to a DEA assistant special agent in charge.
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.
Armed resistance by militia groups to Mexico's violent drug cartels will complicate the efforts of bankers charged with following anti-money laundering laws, whatever their sympathies, say industry consultants.
Mexican officials will extend until February an upcoming deadline for nonbank companies to implement anti-money laundering controls, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
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.
Recent investigations indicate that a number of Mexican brokerage firms are converting drug profits into pesos and using a network of couriers to layer the money in American bank accounts.
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.
A measure that will impose anti-money laundering program requirements on a broad range of non-bank businesses and professions in Mexico will take effect next month, according to a notice published Friday in the country's official journal.
Without the threat of larger monetary settlements or prosecutions, financial institutions have little economic incentive to seriously enforce their anti-money laundering compliance controls, according to Peter Reuter, a professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Maryland.
U.S. lawmakers may need to earmark more money for Mexico's financial intelligence unit as part of a $1.9 billion aid package intended to help fight drug trafficking, a federal official said Thursday.
Changes to the final version of Mexico's new anti-money laundering law leave important gaps in the nation's compliance regime, and may elicit criticism from an intergovernmental policymaker, say analysts.
When Mexico's President Felipe Calderon relinquishes power in December to his successor, he'll leave behind a decidedly mixed legacy in the fight against the country's drug cartels. But U.S. law enforcement agents and other officials worry that Mexico's next leader could do worse, sources say.
Federal examiners have asked at least a dozen banks along the U.S.-Mexico border to file suspicious activity reports even for relatively small transactions deemed only to be "unusual," say compliance professionals.
Mexico has lost as much $91 billion per year to capital flight associated with tax evasion and corruption during the last decade, according to a report by an American advocacy group.
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.
