'The FATF has acknowledged our efforts to fight money laundering,' Alak

During its plenary session being held in Mexico, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) acknowledged that Argentina had moved forward in its prevention and fight against money laundering activities, sources within Justice Minister Julio Alak’s delegation said.

Alak spoke before the assembly yesterday, and expressed that the new law recently passed by Congress, which includes stricter measures for those involved in money laundering activities, “effectively complies with all the organization’s recommendations.”

“All countries taking part in the FATF plenary meeting acknowledged Argentina’s efforts, our strong political commitment to solve the issue, and especially our new anti-money laundering law,” the Minister said.

In a written statement, he also said they supported “Argentina’s stance in order to continue applying our Action Plan, which was outlined in the last couple of months.”

“FATF representatives praised our new law, calling it a “substantial advance,” since we now included money-laundering activities in our Penal Code, and we expanded the capabilities of the Financial Information Unit, our local control agency.

“The possibility to now consider money-laundering as a crime in itself instead of having to wait for a previous conviction, is a fundamental tool for us to expand our fight against this kind of activities,” he added.