Paraguay- Brazilian Bank Fined Heavily for Anti-money Laundering Non-compliance.

A major Brazilian Bank in Paraguayan has been sanctioned by the Paraguayan government. Latin American Government has cracked down on the banks and financial institutes that do not regulate with the anti-money laundering compliance.

Ultima Hora of Paraguay disclosed that the BCP (Centra Bank of Paraguay) has enforced around $9.64 million on the Brazilian bank for not complying with AML regulations. The bank failed to report to the authorities about suspicious activities and hence violating Paraguay’s article 19 law No. 1015 that is related to money laundering.

This has been the record-breaking penalty in the entire history of Paraguay. The general director of SEPRELED’s, Diego Marcet has given a statement to Radio Universo commenting on the lack of commitment the system has for anti-money laundering regulations.

Banco Itau’s response stated that this investigation was carried out due to a certain incident which the bank had reported about itself. It also argued that it has a stringent anti-money laundering policy. The bank had lost the case in their first appeal and it is expected that they might lose again.

This is not the only thing this bank has faced lately. In 2019, an anti-corruption probe, Brazil’s Operation Car Wash had discovered that around $16.4 million was used in illegal transections through Banco Itau. These illegal transactions of money were used for the purpose of bribery. About a month later, the city of Sao Paolo penalized Itau for evading taxes. The bank was also caught in a case to have over-charged the customers and faced a penalty of $2million.