Money laundering is a serious problem, not only in Mexico but throughout the world. According to data from the United Nations, “money laundering reaches up to 2.7 percent of the world’s gross domestic product each year.” The weaker the State, the greater the percentage of GDP that is laundered.
Money laundering is the process through which the origin of funds generated through the exercise of some illegal activities is concealed (the most common being drug or narcotics trafficking, arms smuggling, corruption, fraud, human trafficking, prostitution, extortion, piracy, tax evasion and terrorism). The objective of the operation, which is generally carried out at various levels, is to make the funds or assets obtained through illicit activities appear as the result of legitimate activities and circulate smoothly in the financial system.
Due to the aforementioned, in the month of August, the call for the certification in prevention with resources of illicit origin was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF), aimed at individuals who carry out one of the 16 vulnerable activities , as well as those responsible for compliance of these organizations.
With the aim of contributing to the prevention of crimes with resources of illicit origin, as well as strengthening compliance with the regime of crimes related to money laundering, and compliance with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of according to what the FIU mentions.
To guide this process, the general rules of the general law for the Prevention and Identification of Operations with Resources of Illicit Origin had to be modified so that in this way the nearly 100,000 obliged subjects dedicated to one of the 16 vulnerable activities, also have to comply with the law.
Javier Estrada
Gloria Ponce de León & Hernández