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In Mexico’s Floundering Drug War, United States Shares Mixed Record
By Colby Adams
printThe following is the second of a two-stage report on changes in the U.S.-Mexico partnership to fight cartel money laundering. The first can be read here. More When the U.S. Justice Department accused 14 last month of washing Mexican cartel money through a horse racing operation, it signified a rare feat in the drug war: a prosecution built solely on money laundering charges. Despite years of trying to choke the financial networks of Mexicans drug gangs, such cases remain the exception, say sources. "The big fish in the game that we can really attack the cartels with are the launderers...
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New rules for Mexico's energy sector will soon empower the country's tax supervisor to scrutinize international firms for potential violations of money-laundering and graft laws.
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.
U.S. investigators are asking some of the nation's largest banks to tighten their policies on accepting cash deposits in an effort to choke off the financial channels of human smugglers.
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.
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.
A U.S. program supplementing Mexico’s efforts to clamp down on drug trafficking and money laundering should be extended for years to come, American investigators say.
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.
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.
U.S. lawmakers Thursday criticized federal officials for delays in finalizing anti-money laundering rules and failing to prosecute banks and bankers that facilitate billions of dollars in illicit transactions.
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.
The New Mexico Attorney General's Office has expanded its team of anti-money laundering investigators as a result of a 2010 settlement between the state of Arizona and Western Union, according to the state's top prosecutor.
In the wake of regulatory crackdowns and multiple criminal probes, financial institutions operating in Mexico are spending millions of dollars to upgrade their anti-money laundering programs, say bank staff.
Unscrupulous financial institutions, legislative delays and a lack of quick action by U.S. federal officials are allowing drug cartels to wash money in the United States "right before our eyes," according to Terry Goddard, the former Attorney General of Arizona.
U.S. senators will question representatives from HSBC Holdings Plc and its financial regulator next Tuesday over the findings of an unreleased report outlining concerns about the bank's anti-money laundering compliance program.