At the request of the complaint filed by the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol), the Public Ministry will carry out proceedings to request the Atlas bank, belonging to the Zuccolillo Group, to return the money obtained through operations carried out by Nicolás Leoz. The figure that the prosecution will apply is that of autonomous confiscation through which Banco Atlas will be ordered to return the profits and benefits of the trust agreements ordered by Leoz in favor of his heirs using dirty money. Conmebol filed a complaint for alleged money laundering against managers of the Atlas bank, accused of allegedly facilitating mechanisms to launder part of the US$ 200 million diverted by Leoz from Conmebol. The criminal investigation is made difficult by a suspicious delay on the part of the Superintendence of Banks and the refusal of Atlas directors to collaborate with the justice system.
Source: The Black Box
The investigation for alleged money laundering against the directors of Banco Atlas advances with difficulties due to the strong pressure exerted by the Zuccolillo Group through the ABC Color newspaper to prevent progress with the investigations. Based on Conmebol’s claim to recover football money, the prosecution analyzes the application of the figure of autonomous confiscation with the aim that the bank returns the profits obtained in commercial operations with Nicolas Leoz.
The process is governed by Law 6431, which creates the special procedure for the application of confiscation, special confiscation, deprivation of benefits and profits, and autonomous confiscation. Prosecutors must submit a request for deprivation of benefits and profits from the punishable act. The action is real and patrimonial in nature; that is, it goes against goods. It can even be done without a declaration of reproachability.
The criminal investigation also encounters the strong resistance of the directors of the Atlas bank to provide key information on the operations carried out by Nicolas Leoz with the bank. The prosecutors in the case, Lilian Alcaraz and Francisco Cabrera, requested information from the Atlas bank on the commercial operations, movements, receipts and payments of money made by Nicolas Leoz since 2001. The objective is to obtain the reconstruction of the money route and determine whether or not the bank complied with the application of anti-money laundering mechanisms.
Nevertheless, the Atlas bank board responded that they are not obliged to retain the information in documentary support for more than 5 years and also argued that they no longer have records of said operations since they supposedly performed a “migration” of their system. In this way, the Zuccolillo Group applies the same modus operandi of not collaborating with justice. The Atlas bank had denied information to the North American justice on the commercial operations with Leoz alleging “bank secrecy”.
Related note: Domínguez talks about the investigation into Banco Atlas and the money recovered by Conmebol
STRIKING DELAY BY THE SUPERINTENDENCY OF BANKS
The directors of Banco Atlas were subjected to an on-site verification by the Superintendence of Banks (BCP) suspected of not applying money laundering prevention mechanisms.
In the month of May 2022, the BCP Superintendence of Banks initiated supervision proceedings, to evaluate the reasonableness of the systems for the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism in Banco Atlas, related to the operations of Nicolás Leoz.
The results of this audit have not yet been delivered to the Public Ministry, so the prosecutors in the Liliana Alcaraz and Francisco Cabrera case sent a note requesting the results of said audit.
This is the second episode starring the Superintendence of Banks where they denote little collaboration with the justice system since in July of last year they had refused to provide information in the framework of the same criminal process. On that occasion, Judge Humberto Otazú authorized the search of the BCP unit, highlighting in the recital of his resolution the little favor that the refusal to collaborate on the part of the parent bank in a case where alleged acts of money laundering are being investigated. .
The members of the board of directors of the Atlas bank are also in the crosshairs of the investigation for having endorsed the operations carried out by the former sports director, Nicolás Leoz.
CHRONOLOGY OF OPERATION LAUNDRY AND HOW DIRTY MONEY WAS SHIELDED FROM LEOZ
Nicolás Leoz Almirón resigned from his positions as president of Conmebol and FIFA on April 23, 2013after scandals and suspicions of bribery.
In 2015, the criminal prosecution by the United States became public. Leoz was accused of being responsible for criminal association of organized crime; criminal association of electronic fraud; electronic fraud; criminal association for money laundering; money laundering under United States law.
Also read: Zuccolillo’s extra son, ignored and “disinherited” by sisters
The Paraguayan authorities, when granting the extradition, concluded that the accused acts correspond to the figures, according to our legislation, of criminal association, breach of trust and money laundering. Leoz was accused of diversion of about US $ 200 million from Conmebol and met the requirements to be considered a “high risk profile.”
TRUST AGREEMENTS
In February 2016, the Atlas bank formalized two trust agreements in favor of Nicolas Leoz and his direct relatives. The two agreements were concluded just one month and 4 days after the Paraguayan prosecutor’s office searched the headquarters of Conmebol, as part of an investigation of the Fifagate case.
At the time of executing the fiduciary agreements, an international arrest warrant for extradition purposes already weighed on Leoz by the North American justice and a Paraguayan judge had ordered his house arrest in June 2015.
Leoz’s dirty money route in the Zuccolillo Group.
? Prosecutor’s Office seeks to rebuild the dirty money route at Banco Atlas and Eastern Real Estate.
? Conmebol filed a complaint for alleged money laundering against managers of the Atlas bank.#LCNPy? pic.twitter.com/mK21hFLYec
– The Black Box (@CajaNegraPy) November 9, 2022
The operations authorized by Atlas allowed the shielding of Leoz’s money, turning the fund into an autonomous patrimony, exempt from possible embargoes and managed by the bank in favor of Leoz and her daughters with the purpose, expressly agreed, of covering health expenses and legal proceedings.
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In November 2020, Leoz’s daughters asked the Atlas bank to assign the economic rights of a trust and transfer to Conmebol the sum of G. 8,881 million. Leoz’s own family made it clear that the operation at Banco Atlas was murky.
The February 4, 2021 The legal representative of the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) filed a criminal complaint for the alleged punishable act of money laundering against the directors of Banco Atlas. The basis of the complaint was the audit carried out by Conmebol in which a fiduciary operation carried out between Nicolás Leoz and the Atlas bank for a value of $6 milliondespite the fact that an international arrest warrant from the North American justice already weighed on the former sports leader.
