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Jun 03, 2004
Money Laundering by Arabs From Ciudad del Este Reported
from ABC Color on Thursday, June 03, 2004
An investigation by the Money Laundering Prevention Secretariat (Seprelad) has revealed that a group of merchants and businessmen from Ciudad del Este sent close to $50 million abroad without control from the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP). All of those involved are of Arab origin.
Superintendent Prosecutor Juan Carlos Duarte has a concrete denunciation on the matter, but the prosecution case file is frozen.
The money laundering scheme on the border has another facet, in the sense that powerful businessmen and merchants of Arab origin are involved. This is what a Seprelad investigation revealed.
In a brief investigation, the agents of that state organism detected that a small group of businessmen and merchants had in just over a month sent $49.8 million outside the country irregularly. The information is being managed by the Seprelad with total secrecy.
A little over a month ago, the lawyer Simon Jara Sosa presented a concrete denunciation in the case. It was he who denounced Nassar Hichan Mohamad and his cousin Atef Ali Walav. The professional cites law 1015, which indicates that operations that have the rational characteristics of money laundering and are over $10,000 must be reported.
In his denunciation, the lawyer mentions the Seprelads investigations. "These operations, reported to that organism in the form of sworn statements, were not investigated and we believe that they could be covering up remittances sent to finance terrorism, using their companies or various fictitious people as a front to cover up this crime," says a section of the denunciation presented by Jara Sosa.
In another paragraph, the professional says that the denunciation that was presented to the Public Prosecutors Office is aimed at requesting an exhaustive investigation into these people for the punishable activities of smuggling, piracy, tax evasion, and money laundering.
Seprelad sources said that there was no indication that the dollars sent by the businessmen and merchants of the area were destined to financing supposed radical Islamic groups.
According to the information,the majority of the money comes from other illegal activities, such as smuggling and tax evasion. The millions of dollars are sent to tax havens and to the United States, according to the investigators.
In response to the information, the reference denunciation was sent to the prosecution unit in the charge of Superintendent Prosecutor Juan Carlos Duarte, who noticeably has not at all promoted a serious investigation into the case.
The representative from the Public Prosecutors Office also has another money laundering case that includes the clandestine money changers, in which, despite the evidence of illicit activity, the representative from the Public Prosecutors Office has not intervened.
[Source: Translated from the Paraguayan newspaper, ABC Color, by the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC). Copyright 2004. All rights reserved.]
* This article may be freely reprinted provided it is used in its entirety without modification and includes the following sentence:
Article reprinted from Pryors of Paraguay [http://pryors.net/] - Gods Work in Gods Way! The Pryors are missionaries to Paraguay, South America who are purposed to pursue the Biblical plan for missions and prove that New Testament principles still work today.
Posted by David Pryor in In The News, Paraguay | Permalink
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