Financial Crime World

Financial Crime Definition in Mexico: A Growing Concern

Mexico has been grappling with a surge in financial crimes in recent years, with authorities struggling to keep pace with sophisticated techniques used by criminals to launder money and evade taxes.

What is Financial Crime?

According to the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), financial crime can be defined as “the processing of criminal proceeds to disguise their illegal origin” in order to “legitimize” the ill-gotten gains of crime.

Types of Financial Crimes

Financial crimes in Mexico are a broad range of illegal activities that involve the use of property, including:

  • Fraud: The use of deceit or misrepresentation to obtain money or property from someone else.
    • Examples: Identity theft, credit card fraud, investment scams
  • Theft: Taking something that doesn’t belong to you without permission.
  • Scams: Deceiving people into giving you their money or personal information.
  • Bribery: Offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting something of value in exchange for an illegal benefit.

Money Laundering

One of the most common forms of financial crime in Mexico is money laundering. This involves:

  • Converting or transferring property, knowing that such property is derived from a criminal offense.
  • Concealing or disguising its illicit origin.

Money laundering can take many forms, including:

  • Using shell corporations and other intermediaries to conceal true nature of financial transactions.

In recent years, Mexico has seen a surge in cases of money laundering linked to drug trafficking and organized crime. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), criminal proceeds amounting to 3.6% of global GDP were laundered in 2009, with a significant proportion believed to have been laundered through Mexico.

Combating Financial Crimes

The authorities in Mexico are working hard to combat these crimes, with a range of law enforcement agencies dedicated to investigating and prosecuting financial criminals. However, more needs to be done to:

  • Prevent these crimes from occurring in the first place.
  • Ensure that those who do commit them are held accountable for their actions.

International Cooperation

The Irish Department of Housing has urged Minister Darragh O’Brien to ask the UAE to account for its relationship with Daniel Kinahan, a drug kingpin charged with controlling and managing daily drug operations in Ireland. The Kinahan brothers are sons of Christy Kinahan Senior, who smuggled drugs and firearms into the UK, Ireland, and mainland Europe.

By working together internationally and taking a proactive approach to preventing financial crimes, we can make progress in combating this growing concern.