No. 3, Year 4
Third Quarter 2006

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OAS and IDB Renew Collaboration on Control of Money Laundering

In October, Nohra Rey de Marulanda, the manager of the Department of Integration and Regional Programs of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the CICAD Executive Secretary James Mack signed an agreement through which CICAD will oversee a series of mock trials in cases of money laundering to train judges and prosecutors. The program is the fourth capacity-building program that the IADB has underwritten with CICAD's Money Laundering Control section since 1999. The project also receives  on contributions the  United Nations Legal Assistance Program for Latin American and the Caribbean.

The mock trials will take place in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico and Paraguay, commencing with Chile in November this year (See below). In each occasion, more than 15 court officers will participate in the roles of judges, prosecutors, public defenders, while law enforcement officers, financial analysts from the financial intelligence units or the superintendencies of banking (up to 15 participants per event) will assist as expert witnesses.

Although the main objective of a mock trial is to  practice a case of money laundering, the project includes a theoretical component provided by international experts and the development of an investigative plan by which prosecutors explore the strategy to follow in the case.

Nohra Rey de Marulanda for the IDB and James Mack for CICAD/OAS shake hands over the signing of another

CICAD, through its Legal Development and Money Laundering Control sections, has staged these types of workshops since 2003, at the special request of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). In addition to the IDB and UNODC, the governments of Spain, France and the United States also have contributed. Governments hosting the training also cover significant local costs in order to have a training event as a sign of their commitment to the program.

OAS Chief underscore value of mock trial approach

José Miguel Insulza speaks at mock trial in Chile.

OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza participated in a “Mock Trials in Money Laundering Cases” workshop in Valparaiso, Chile in early November.  In his opening remarks, the Secretary General stressed that training those in charge of enforcing the law is an essential step to confront the complex crime of money laundering.

“Excellent human resources are not a guarantee that justice can be served in all cases, but they are at least a basic starting point from which to begin the battle,” he said.

“Today, in the fight against organized crime, it is not enough to convict a drug trafficker, even if that person is the head of the organization,” Insulza said.

“Today we need police officers and judicial officials capable of unmasking the reality behind each transaction created to disguise assets, and judges who can understand it,” he added.

The course is part of a series of workshops that CICAD has held in the last few years. Previously, the Commission trained bank officials and supervisors with the goal of preventing money laundering. Judges and prosecutors were prosecute moneylaundering crimes when prevention at the banking level proved insufficient. Resources were then earmarked to improve financial intelligence units to detect suspicious transaction that could be followed up by law enforcement.

The Valparaiso course brought together prosecutors, attorneys and auditors from the Public Ministry of Chile, specialized police and customs officials, the Internal Taxation Service and the Financial Analysis Unit, to apply the knowledge gained during the past few years.

Other activities

In Nicaragua in October, the Anti-Money Laundering section's standard workshop for judges and prosecutors saw legislators from the Nicaraguan General Assembly participating in the event for the first time. The elected representatives were attending the workshop as a means of educating themselves about the background and details of money laundering issues so that they could legislate this type of crime appropriately and concisely.

Spanish legal expert Eduardo Fabian addresses judges and prosecutors in a workshop in Guatemala recently. The Spanish government supports anti-money laundering training.

The Expert Group on the Control of Money Laundering met in mid-November in El Salvador to deal with international cooperation and asset seizures. It also explored new aspects of technical assistance, such as the administration of seized assets and the financing of terrorist activities.

In late November, the Money Laundering Control section will hold a workshop on setting up a regional database of money laundering methods and investigative strategies of law enforcement agencies. The initiative will developed a database classifying the types of money laundering methods, standardizing the terminology for describing each and cataloguing the actual and possible responses that law enforcement can make to the different types of money laundering, as well as the results of each response. The database will be tested with Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago, and eventually be made available to the whole region. 

CICAD will begin a special judicial mentoring program with Guatemala, in which a consultant from the region and hired by CICAD will provide practical training to prosecutors involved in money laundering cases for six months.