GELAVEX is the main hemispheric forum to discuss and propose lines of action to prevent and counter money laundering in the Americas.

It was created in 1990, through the convening of the first meeting of the Inter-American Group of Experts to develop model regulations on money laundering related to illicit drug trafficking.

Since 2016 it is a working group whose Technical Secretariat services are provided by the Department against Transnational Organized Crime (DDOT).

Currently, GELAVEX is made up of two Sub-Working Groups:

  • International Cooperation and Confiscation
  • Coordination between Financial Intelligence Units (FIU) and Criminal Investigation Organizations (OIC)

Objectives
  • Discuss and propose lines of action to prevent and counteract money laundering in the Americas.
  • Develop studies, model standards, guides, good practices, and methodological tools that serve as a hemispheric reference to standardize procedures and standards for the control and punishment of money laundering at the level of the OAS member states.
  • Promote and ensure programs, training and technical assistance projects, as well as other hemispheric initiatives to strengthen regional efforts against money laundering linked to transnational organized crime.


Activities

Working Subgroup of the Financial Intelligence Units and Criminal Investigation Organizations:

  • Develop case identification work from the perspective of criminal investigation involving crypto assets.
  • Develop work on money laundering from corruption crimes linked to illicit drug trafficking, arms trafficking and tax fraud, with emphasis on the identification of typologies and legislative analysis in the countries of the group.
  • Develop work focused on the analysis of final beneficiaries in money laundering, coordinated through the Technical Secretariat, with the work that could be carried out by other specialized agencies, such as GAFILAT, GAFIC or UINL.
  • Develop tools to perform strategic analysis in money laundering investigations: Country experiences in the development and use of technological tools to improve operational and strategic analysis.
  • Develop a study on the feasibility of implementing a consultation system for the region.
  • Carry out a study of money laundering linked to the illegal extraction of minerals, with emphasis on the analysis of the criminal and administrative legislation of this sector, including the identification of practical cases, typologies and existing measures to prevent illegal extraction and the management of assets associated with it.

Working Subgroup on International Cooperation and Confiscation:

  • Promote the creation of the Network for the Administration of Illicit Assets at the hemispheric or subregional level, with the support of the Technical Secretariat (DDOT)
  • Promote the creation of a model for the distribution of assets, as a reference document for the member states of the OAS.
  • Develop a work of identification and analysis of the tools available to asset management offices for the management of assets subject to confiscation, such as databases or computer programs to keep inventories, in order to create a conceptual model that has a minimum common denominator of reference for States at the hemispheric level, including guidelines for sharing information externally.
  • Develop a study on the advisability of advances in the electronic processing of requests for international legal cooperation in money laundering matters
  • Develop work to promote International Cooperation and Asset Forfeiture linked to new criminal trends associated with money laundering.
  • Develop tools to facilitate cooperation in the administration of assets subject to Confiscation.

Beneficiary Countries
Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Argentina
Barbados
Barbados
Belize
Belize
Bolivia
Bolivia
Brazil
Brazil
Canada
Canada
Chile
Chile
Colombia
Colombia
Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Dominica
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Ecuador
El Salvador
El Salvador
Grenada
Grenada
Guatemala
Guatemala
Guyana
Guyana
Haiti
Haiti
Honduras
Honduras
Jamaica
Jamaica
Mexico
Mexico
Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Panama
Panama
Paraguay
Paraguay
Peru
Peru
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Suriname
Suriname
The Bahamas
The Bahamas
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
United States of America
United States of America
Uruguay
Uruguay
Venezuela
Venezuela
Team
Gaston Schulmeister
Director
John Grajales
Technical Specialist
Mónica Espinoza
Program Officer
Karoline Moraes
Program Officer
José David Moreno
Technical Support Officer
Alfonso Trilleras
Technical Support Officer
Strategic Partners