On December 7, 2023, the United States ambassador to Ecuador, Michael Fitzpatrick, firmly pointed out that in the country “there are fronts that launder money from corrupt people and drug traffickers in banks, companies, media and soccer teams. (Criminals) launder their money, of course, in real assets, in bank accounts, in fictitious companies.” At the same time, on the night of Wednesday the 13th and the morning of Thursday the 14th of December 2023, Dr. Diana Salazar, the Chief State Prosecutor (FGE), bravely carried out sixty-five simultaneous raids in some provinces of the country and arrested several persons (Judges , prosecutors, police, etc.), according to the FGE, it was investigated after the death of a person considered to be a major drug trafficker.

Normalizing the unusual

Therefore, it is of great importance that control organizations (competent by law), supervisory units of banks (SB), popular and solidarity economy (SEPS), companies, securities and insurance (SCVS), apply procedures based on best practice, especially the recommendations of the Working Group for Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crimes Risk Management Authority (LAFDT), such as terrorism (ARLAFDT) in their control processes.

NO is based on Art. 244 of the COMF, developed and implemented ARLAFDT regulations between 2020 and July 2022, which relate to technical procedures with technical assistance from the US Treasury Department, requiring banks to have organizational structure, policies, processes, reports, audit, technology, appropriate organizational culture and training that enables them to detect, recognize and prevent their use in committing the criminal offense of money laundering and/or terrorist financing. In addition, in order to strengthen its actions in the fight against LAFDT, the SB signed an inter-institutional agreement with the Financial and Economic Analysis Unit (UAFE) on 17 September 2021 for the exchange of information, and also worked closely with the FGE.

The mother of all battles

In the country, LAFDT is usually associated with the development of financial activities, such as the collection of money by natural and legal persons who are not authorized by the control organizations as stated in Art. 254 COMF. At the same time art. 274, 275 and 276 of the COMF, with the aim of protecting the interests of citizens, require the supervision (NO, SEPS and SCVS) to carry out inspections, sanction, notify (or report) FGE and UAFE. Because of these provisions, from May 2019 to July 2022, the NO issued 149 warnings to citizens about unauthorized persons, submitted and published almost 190 complaints to the FGE; There are no reports on this latest procedure, reviewed on the SB website, from August 2022 to date.

For the sake of their protection, citizens must have information from authorized sources such as control agencies, entities that must deepen their transparency policy by effectively contributing to the fight against corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing; and actions of FGE. (OR)