MEXICO CITY (CN) - On Thursday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum rebuffed the U.S. Treasury Department's Wednesday claim that various Mexican financial institutions are involved in money laundering in connection with opioid trafficking.
"The Treasury Department has not submitted any evidence indicating that there is money laundering," Sheinbaum said. "What is our position? If there is evidence, we'll take action, there is no impunity, it does not matter who it would be; but if there is no evidence you cannot act on it, just like any crime," she said.
Sheinbaum said in a written statement on Thursday that Mexico's finance ministry and Financial Intelligence Unit initially received confidential information from the U.S. Treasury Department about Chinese and Mexican financial institutions weeks ago. The two agencies previously conducted their own investigation and found no evidence of money laundering.
The U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network accused three Mexican financial institutions - CIBanco, Intercam and Vector - "as being of primary money laundering concern" and blocked the banks' transactions with lenders and brokerage.
CIBanco and Intercam are both commercial banks. CIBanco has over $7 billion in total assets, Intercam $4 billion.
Vector is a brokerage firm with $11 billion in assets. According to the U.S. Treasury Department's statement, the three banks have a long-standing relationship with drug traffickers.
"Financial facilitators like CIBanco, Intercam, and Vector are enabling the poisoning of countless Americans by moving money on behalf of cartels, making them vital cogs in the fentanyl supply chain," said U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in the department's press release.
The U.S. Treasury Department contends that CIBanco provides financial services that facilitate drug trafficking operations for the Beltran-Leyva Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel and Gulf Cartel and "has also facilitated the procurement of precursor chemicals from China for illicit purposes."
They also note that CIBanco knowingly facilitated an account to launder $10 million on behalf of a Gulf Cartel member.
The department also claims that Intercam has a long-standing relationship with members of the New Generation Jalisco Cartel and facilitated the purchase of precursor chemicals from China to Mexico.
Vector, the U.S. Treasury Department claims, facilitates money laundering services for the Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel.
"For example, from 2013 through 2021, a Sinaloa Cartel money mule employed various methods to launder $2 million from the United States to Mexico through Vector," the department claims.
On the same day that the U.S. Treasury Department issued their statement, the Mexican Senate approved amendments to the Federal Law for the Prevention and Identification of Operations with Resources of Illicit Origin, Mexico's anti-money laundering law.
"I appear before you with the conviction that a reform is being presented that not only strengthens the capacity of the Mexican State to combat economic crime and money laundering, but also seeks to balance people's rights, economic freedom and legal certainty with legislative responsibility," said Senator Javier Corral Jurado before promoting a draft decree reforming the law.
One of the main proposals was to improve coordination between the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, the National Guard and national and international financial institutions. The reform passed with 74 votes in favor, 13 against and 19 abstentions.
Source: Courthouse News Service
