Casinos, sportsbooks, even bakeries investigated for money laundering
April 15th, 2013 (InsideCostaRica.com) In the past year, Costa Rican authorities have received a total of 302 reports of suspicious financial transactions, many of which are being investigated by the Money Laundering Unit of the Judicial Investigation Organization (OIJ).
These Suspicious Transaction Reports, or STRs, are filed by banks and other financial institutions when they suspect a transaction may be related to money laundering.
The Money Laundering Unit of the OIJ is currently investigation some 16 major cases, related to capital invested in casinos, sportsbooks, a football team, and even bakeries and carwashes.
However, authorities face an uphill battle prosecuting money laundering cases, which rarely, if ever, end in convictions.
A report by the Tax Justice Network, a nongovernmental organization which studies tax havens, places Costa Rica at 41st globally and 14th in Latin America in its ranking of countries by level of bank secrecy.
According to the director of the OIJ, Francisco Segura, most of the money that is laundered in Costa Rica comes from Mexico, then is transported by land through Central America to Costa Rica, where it is invested in seemingly legitimate businesses. Later, the profits of these businesses are usually sent to banks in Panama.
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