- Eight out of ten cases have led to an external intelligence report on criminal indications
- More than half of the alleged crimes are related to organized crime and tax fraud
- Banks have remitted most of the investigated cases, 24.6% more than the previous year
The Executive Service of the Commission for the Prevention of Money Laundering (Sepblac) processed 4,025 communications of suspicious operations in 2013, which represents an increase of 31.6% compared to a year earlier. In 80% of the cases, the investigation led to an external intelligence report, before confirming indications of possible crimes of money laundering or terrorist financing, according to the 2013 report of the agency that was published today.
The increase in alerts for possible irregular activities has occurred thanks to the increased vigilance of both financial entities and other sectors. In the case of the financial sector, the increase in cases referred by banks to Sepblac stands out, which registered an increase of 24.6%, up to 2,234 communications.
In the case of non-financial entities, the activity in detecting irregular behavior increased by 37.3%, up to 670 communications. This heading highlights the highest number of alerts received from notaries, property and commercial registrars, auditors, accountants, tax advisers, fund transport companies and entities related to the gaming sector.
Collaboration with other authorities
In the section on collaboration with national authorities, during 2013 there was an 8% increase in requests for information from Sepblac. This increase is due to the greater requests for information from the National Police Force, which went from 144 to 182 requests, 26.4% more.
In the field of international cooperation, the number of requests for information from other financial intelligence units (FIUs) grew significantly, from 490 requests in 2012 to 602 in 2013, an increase of 22.9% and the highest figure of the past four years.
As for the intelligence reports distributed by Sepblac to other authorities and organizations, the increase in the sending of information to the National Police (2,475 communications, 48.3% more), to the Civil Guard (1,099 communications, a 57.9% more) and to the State Tax Administration Agency (1,306 communications, 48.7% more).
Origin of criminal activity
Sepblac has carried out a detailed analysis of 10,000 communications received between 2009 and 2013, with the aim of identifying the different elements involved in each of the suspicious operations and taking advantage of this information to improve systems and procedures to comply with obligations. of the obligated subjects in the matter of money laundering and terrorist financing.
According to this analysis, 32.8% of the communications received correspond to activities related to organized crime; 29.3%, to crimes of a fiscal nature; 17.7%, to economic crimes; 9.9%, to activities related to drug trafficking; 5.6% are linked to authorities and public officials and 4.7%, with financing of terrorism.
The most common operations in suspicious operations are:
- Funds inflow: cash income (37% of total communications analyzed), payment orders from abroad (37%) and national transfers (16%).
- Withdrawal of funds: cash withdrawals (28%), payment orders abroad (26%) and domestic transfers (20%).
On the other hand, the activity sectors in which risk operations are carried out are commerce (17.5%), real estate (13.3%), international trade (13.1%), liberal professions (5 , 7%), hospitality (5%), payment entities (2.9%), financial entities (2.6%), industry and manufacturing (2.6%) and agriculture, fishing or livestock (1.8%) ).
The areas in which suspicious operations are carried out are: Madrid (29%), the Mediterranean area (28%), the Andalusian coast (15%), the northern area (11%) and the insular area (7%). The analysis also shows that 66% of the reported operations are carried out exclusively in Spain, while the remaining 34% also take place in other countries.
About the Sepblac
Sepblac is the Spanish Financial Intelligence Unit and the Supervisory Authority for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
It is an inter-agency body, in which employees of the Ministry of Economy, Bank of Spain, Tax Agency, Police and Civil Guard are assigned. SEPBLAC acts under the authority of the Commission for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Monetary Offenses, chaired by the Secretary of State for the Economy.
Link to report: http://www.sepblac.es/espanol/informes_y_publicaciones/memoria2013.pdf
