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The Law of the National Strategy to Fight Against Legitimization of Illicit Profits and Financing of Terrorism (LGI / FT) was approved last August in the Legislative Assembly, despite criticism from the opposition that considers that the norm grants unrestricted power to the Financial Investigations Unit (UIF) to investigate all Bolivians, but what does the rule say exactly? What are the new powers of the FIU?
1. Ex officio investigations
According to the senator of the Citizen Community (CC) Andrea Barrientos, the norm gives greater power to the FIU so that it can investigate any citizen ex officio, on simple suspicion, so the FIU becomes an entity that will start hunting and investigating “whoever wants to”, without tax requirement.
In this regard, the annex to the standard determines the expansion of the FIU’s analytical powers to investigate possible cases of legitimation of illicit profits, a task for which it states that it must “develop regulations that allow the FIU to carry out financial and financial investigations. patrimonial to the people who are linked to the subjects on whom a suspicious operation report (STR) or a request from the competent authority has been received ”.
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However, in the following guideline, C.13, it is indicated that it is necessary to “Formulate the regulations that empower the FIU to initiate investigations ex officio, without the need for the existence of a STR or the request of the competent authority, as well as to establish the conditions for the exercise of the same ”.
2. Ambiguous definitions
Another criticism of the law is that it does not specify what could be considered a suspicious operation, however, it establishes in point C.3 that a normative proposal must be “prepared to empower the FIU to collect information from public and private entities, establishing the obligation for them to comply with said requirement within the deadlines to be established, as well as the applicable sanctions ”.
The following points (C.4 and C.5) indicate that the FIU must strengthen compliance with the issuance of STRs in cases of transfers with incomplete information, as well as in cases of attempted transactions “that the obliged subject (banks and other financial entities) consider suspicious ”.
3. Expanded competencies
Point B.6 of the strategy indicates that the FIU must establish a supervision or monitoring regime with a risk-based approach for sectors not supervised by the Financial System Supervision Authority (ASFI), the Supervision and Control Authority of Pensions and Insurance (APS) and the Gaming Authority (AJ), for which “pertinent studies will be carried out to identify these sectors.”
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Likewise, in point C.11 it is stated that the regulatory regulations that regulate the obligation of financial system entities to keep documentation of their clients’ transactions will be reviewed, in order to improve the attention to requirements in a timely manner.
4. Informal sector
The annex, in the section on essential aspects of the fight against LGI / FT, cites as a vulnerability the prevalence of informal conditions in the economy, which allows criminal organizations the possibility of opening businesses and using them to enter the resources from their criminal activity to the economy.
Therefore, in point A.3, the annex indicates that both the FIU and other state entities must “form a commission to develop a diagnosis of the informal sector that allows identifying the magnitude of informal activities and their impact on LGI risks. / FT in that sector ”.
In this regard, opposition senators indicated that, since Bolivia’s economy is 80% informal, this will generate a repressive regime, since all people who carry out operations outside the financial system will be suspicious.
5. Advice and adjustments
Another criticism made of the strategy is that the possible adjustments made to it, as well as the complementary norms that regulate its application, will be adjusted through supreme decrees, without these adjustments going through the Plurinational Legislative Assembly (ALP).
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On the other hand, this council is made up of the ministries of Economy, Justice, Defense, Government and the State Attorney General’s Office (PGE).
You listen to them
- Rule In accordance with point D.7 of the annex, it is proposed to amend the Penal Code to include special investigative techniques, such as deferred arrests, use of undercover agents, controlled deliveries, among others, as well as the expansion of arrests and apprehensions for crimes related to the legitimation of illicit profits.
- Calls At the same point of the strategy, it is indicated that the Constitutional Court will be consulted in relation to a bill to authorize call-listening techniques.
* Note originally published in the July 30, 2021 issue
