Money laundering: with the majority opinion of the Frente de Todos and the PRO, the initiative that modifies the current regulations was advanced

During the plenary session of the General Legislation, Finance and Criminal Legislation committees of the Chamber of Deputies, progress was made today with the opinion of the draft reform of the law on prevention and prosecution against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The majority opinion was reached by the signatures of the legislators of the ruling party and the PRO, and the CC-ARI and the Federal interbloc announced their own opinions, which could be concluded in a joint one. The initiative, which will be discussed tomorrow at the venue, is required by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) so that Argentina can adapt to international standards since in September of this year there is a new technical review of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Among its main points, the project proposes that the Financial Investigation Unit (UIF) become a decentralized agency of the National Public Administration, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economy, with its own legal personality, which operates with autonomy and functional, administrative, economic and financial autarchy. Likewise, the penalty provided for laundering in article 303 of the Criminal Code will be increased, the objective condition of punishability will be increased from 300,000 pesos to 8,600,000 pesos and a unit of measurement (Minimum Living and Mobile Wage) will be implemented for the purpose of its periodic updating. On the other hand, the number of operations that must be reported to the FIU is expanded, which provides for the incorporation of virtual asset service providers, to individuals or legal entities that carry out on behalf of a third party, custody and administration of cash or liquid securities, lawyers and corporate and fiduciary service providers. The opposition highlighted the changes made by the ruling party in the official text based on its own suggestions and accompanied the majority opinion, although with dissent. The PRO deputy, Pablo Tonelli, said that his space maintained some dissidents and that they hoped to be able to make new modifications during the debate in the enclosure. For example, he pointed out that “it is a good opportunity to improve the institutional location of the FIU and give it more autonomy. Above all, modify the procedure for appointing the head of the FIU, which is more open and public.” In addition, he said that “it would be good to incorporate among the attributions, the power to sue in criminal cases in cases that are initiated through investigations of the agency.” And he stressed that “some judges today admit it and others not just because it is not specified in the law.” For their part, the Civic Coalition, the UCR, Evolución and the Federal Interbloc chose to present their own minority opinion that guarantees the total autonomy of the UIF and changes in the way its head is appointed.

Original source in Spanish