In the documents sent by the Atlas bank at the request of the Superintendency of Banks, impressions are observed in the risk profile of Nicolás Leoz. Conmebol lawyer Claudio Lovera maintains that there are plenty of elements to support that the Zuccolillo family bank forged the Leoz folder to circumvent the BCP controls. If the complaint made against the directors of the Atlas bank is verified, they are exposed to an initial sentence of up to five years in jail, with the eventual increase to 10 years taking into account possible aggravating factors.
Lovera, representative of Conmebol, revealed that the Atlas bank, in addition to lying to the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP) to justify the operation with Leoz, never went to the sports institution to verify the origin of the funds declared by the client, which was from high risk in terms of laundering prevention.
Leaks of internal communications between supervisors of the Central Bank of Paraguay and officials of the Atlas bank reveal the mechanism used by the Zuccolillo bank to justify the millionaire funds of Nicolás Leoz armored in two trust contracts. For this operation, the directors of the Atlas bank support a criminal complaint for alleged money laundering.
“The black box” accessed exclusive documentation that reveals the Atlas bank’s modus operandi, to justify and shield Leoz’s money through the trust figure.
Internal communications dated from December 16, 2015 between the Money Laundering Risk Supervision of the BCP Superintendency of Banks and the compliance officer of Atlas bank reveal how the Zuccolillo bank operated to justify the origin of the funds managed by Nicolas Leoz.
Among the questions asked by the parent bank to Atlas bank is the type of risk from the point of view of Money Laundering Prevention, as well as Leoz’s Authorized Operating Limit (LOA).
On March 16, 2013, Banco Atlas carried out the profile analysis of Nicolás Leoz. The document contemplates that the former sports leader received US$120,000 as honorary president of Conmebol, however, Leoz resigned on April 22, 2013. How could he have received US$120,000 a month as former president, if he still was in office
In his response, the Atlas bank compliance officer points out that Nicolás Leoz is “high risk”, that his authorized operating limit is G. 1,400,000,000 and the annual limit is G. 16,800,000,000. Regarding the income that supports the operating limit, the bank official points out:
“All demonstrated with documentation and certificates that appear in your folder.”
Among these certificates it then invokes:
“Certificates of Income for Representation Expenses (CSF)”.
He also points out in the note that Nicolás Leoz:
“It had alerts issued for out-of-limit operations and that were justified with the presentation of fund origins.”
Then, in February 2016, Banco Atlas’ Board of Directors approved and ratified the signing of two trust agreements, accepting the designation of Banco Atlas as trustee.
In May 2016, in response to these trust agreements entered into between Atlas and Leoz, the Supervision on Risk of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing of the Superintendence of Banks (SIB) of the Central Bank of Paraguay, requests the compliance officer of the Banco Atlas to submit the documents proving the lawful origin of the funds invested by Nicolás Leoz.
“The supporting documentation (they can be attached and certified scanned copies, addressed to this email) must allow determining the source of the income generated by said certificates of savings deposits.”
In other words, the Central Bank requests information on the origin of the funds in the savings certificate accounts that became part of the trust agreements.
In response to this request, the compliance officer of the Atlas bank indicates that he is moving forward by sending the study of the profile of Nicolás Leoz.
“I am telling you that we have all the supporting documentation for it, only that it is of a considerable volume and it will take us a little time to photocopy everything and authenticate it. However, we have already campaigned to be able to comply with your request”.
What was sent by the Zuccolillo bank was the LOA (Authorized Operating Limit) of Nicolás Leoz, signed by the compliance officer and certified. With said document, the Superintendency of Banks was satisfied and did not require supporting documents to determine the sources of income.
The date of the analysis of the profile assigned to Nicolás Leoz by the Atlas bank is dated March 16, 2013. The document contemplates, for example, estimated annual cash income as a result of the alleged position of former president of the South American Confederation soccer.
On that date, March 16, 2013, recorded in the documents sent by the Atlas bank to justify the income, Leoz was still active president of the South American Football Confederation.
In other words, Banco Atlas made a fatal mistake when reporting Leoz’s income based on clearly non-existent situations, since at that time, March 2013, Leoz was still president of Conmebol and the document with which they intend to justify monthly income throughout one year as former president of Conmebol is from the year 2015.
