Serious failure regarding money laundering

Dear Director:

Having reviewed in more detail what is known as the Tokyo Operation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, I am very concerned about the money laundering of approximately US$ 80 million, a process in which criminals used local banks to launder that amount of money and take it out of the country.

It was not one bank, but five, which demonstrates a failure of the system and its capacity to prevent, detect, and avoid money laundering of this magnitude. An impressive failure that raises doubts about the capabilities of the Financial Analysis Unit (UAF), the banking sector, and the processes they manage.

For a long time, we have been complacent regarding organized crime, saying, ‘this will never happen to us.’ This failure demonstrates that the same seems to have happened regarding the banking sector and the UAF, a unit we knew had few personnel and an annual budget of only US$ 7 million. With such limited resources, little can be achieved. A similar situation occurs with the ANI, which has only US$ 11 million and a staff of 100.

We have formal processes for customer knowledge and anti-money laundering, but they do not appear to be effective. The Chilean banking system is something we all take pride in, but in this area, it does not seem to be measuring up.

I hope that the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the CMF provide us with more information about what occurred and the identified failures, and that the banks, the UAF, and the ANI work to improve their preventive processes. Another task for the Ministry of Security.