Mexico City /
The Minister Alberto Perez Dayan will propose to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) to impose more requirements on the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP), to block bank accounts of suspected criminals.
At the request of the former governor of Tamaulipas, Francisco Javier Garcia Cabeza de Vacathe Second Chamber of the Court will analyze a conflict of criteria between the then Plenary of the Nineteenth Circuit and the First Collegiate Court of the Twenty-Ninth Circuit, regarding the requirements that must be met when a foreign authority requests the blockage.
The matter is related to the order of the UIF to freeze and immobilize the bank accounts of Cabeza de Vaca that he has in the banks HSBC, Santander and Credit Suisse Mexico, and to include him in the Blocked People List.
The freezing of the accounts was based on a letter dated May 4, 2021, issued by the United States Department of Justice, in which the UIF was asked to assess the possibility of blocking, because the legal attaché of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported on the existence of a investigation into international money laundering.
However, one of the courts that granted a suspension to the then governor stated that the legal attaché at the United States Embassy in Mexico was not authorized to initiate investigations and request the blocking of bank accounts by the UIF, but that this should come from foreign authorities or international organizations.
One of the collegiate bodies also determined that the blocking request made by a foreign authority must be considered in a context of legal assistance and international cooperation, hence any request in this regard involves the performance of all those acts tending to the success of the investigation, among which the blocking of persons stands out; while the other resolved that the “express request” must be clear, forceful and indisputable and not a mere possibility of carrying out the respective blocking.
In the project that will be discussed, Minister Pérez Dayán points out that there is a contradiction of criteria, since both jurisdictional bodies ruled on the same legal situation, consisting of defining whether the request to assess the possibility of blocking accounts is or is not an express request in terms of the criteria contained in jurisprudence 46/2018.
Therefore, it proposes that the legal criterion be as follows:
“The Second Chamber of the SCJN determines that the reference to an ‘express request’ does not refer to the requirement of a special formality to make the request, but rather implies the meeting of a set of conditions to validly justify the deployment of the blocking power of the FIU of the SHCP, that is: the existence of a request from a foreign authority, in which it expressly requests the implementation of the financial blocking of certain persons; the request must be formulated by a foreign authority that has powers in the matter and with the competence to request the deployment of such a measure; and the request must be related to the fulfillment of international commitments.”
rarr
