Some of Latin America’s most serious challenges—violent crime, drug trafficking, economic inequality and public corruption—all have one thing in common: money laundering. In Mexico alone, the government’s Financial Intelligence Unit reported that drug cartels and other illicit actors laundered an estimated $50 billion in 2019— crucial revenue for cartels that has also contributed to Mexico’s record-high homicide rate in recent years. Money laundering has helped Brazilian gangs like the Primeiro Comando da Capital, or First Capital Command, expand their criminal networks into neighboring Paraguay and Bolivia. In Venezuela, it has enabled a dramatic theft of public resources by officials tied to President Nicolas Maduro’s government, while the average Venezuelan has starved because of widespread food shortages.

Latin America’s criminal groups have leveraged the coronavirus pandemic to win the goodwill and support of local populations by delivering humanitarian assistance and co-opting public service provision in communities underserved by state institutions. Such levels of “criminal charity” could complicate the future efforts of Latin America’s weakest states to dismantle and defeat organized crime groups, whose power has grown in recent years.

La crisis del COVID-19 plantea el desafío de asegurar que los gobiernos atiendan las necesidades de la emergencia con eficiencia, transparencia e integridad. Los desastres naturales, las crisis humanitarias o epidemias generan la necesidad de desembolsar recursos de forma extremadamente rápida. En este contexto, hay mayores riesgos de que los recursos públicos sean utilizados indebidamente.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is issuing this Notice as part of FinCEN’s COVID-19-related response.  This Notice contains pertinent information regarding reporting COVID-19-related criminal and suspicious activity and reminds financial institutions of certain Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) obligations.  FinCEN intends to issue multiple COVID-19-related advisories.  Each advisory will refer financial institutions to this Notice. 

Karachi is among Asia’s most crime-ridden cities. And yet in eight days in March, after covid-19 forced it into lockdown, not a single car was reported stolen. El Salvador, which has one of the world’s highest murder rates, enjoyed four homicide-free days in the same month. Many countries have reported tumbling crime rates, as crooks, along with everyone else, have shut themselves away. Italy was the first European country to lock down, on March 9th. Even before then, many people were working from home. The number of crimes reported in Italy between March 1st and March 22nd dropped by 64% compared with the same period in 2019.

To avoid a global economic collapse and stave off a potential depression, Member States have taken dramatic and significant measures 2 to provide an economic safety net for citizens and businesses in distress, including through direct cash disbursements, short- and medium-term forgivable loans and deferment of payments, unemployment insurance and other measures.

In taking such emergency measures, Member States have necessarily relaxed safeguards by trading compliance, oversight and accountability for speed of response and achievement of rapid impact, thus leading to the creation of significant opportunities for corruption to thrive.

This Guide is intended to support States in enacting or strengthening domestic legislation to combat falsified medical product-related crime and, in so doing, contributing to the protection of public health. States may use this Guide as a practical tool as they draft, amend or review relevant national legislation within their constitutional and legislative framework.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented global challenges, human suffering and economic disruption. This paper identifies challenges, good practices and policy responses to new money laundering and terrorist financing threats and vulnerabilities arising from the COVID-19 crisis.

This briefing provides a snapshot of anti-money laundering and terrorist-finance threats within the context of the COVID19 pandemic. It has been sourced from confidential debriefs of UNODC law enforcement, governmental, NGO, academic, media, open-source and private sector partners around the world during early April 2020.

In any financial transaction, knowing your customer is essential to ensure that the funds involved are not linked with crime and terrorism.  However, in a digital context, traditional verification tools do not apply. The FATF has developed guidance that will help governments, financial institutions, virtual asset service providers and other regulated entities determine whether a digital ID is appropriate for use for customer due diligence.

The report provides an overview of how criminals adapt their misdeeds to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on information Europol receives from the EU Member States on a 24/7 basis and intends to support Member States’ law enforcement authorities in their work.