The entities did not comply with the money laundering and terrorist financing prevention manual.
He Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU), through the Superintendency of Financial Services fined two exchange houses in the country for more than 100,000 dollars due to non-compliance with the money laundering and terrorist financing prevention manual.
The name of both exchange houses is Phoenix Change, with headquarters in Rivera and Brimar change (Akumal), established in Montevideo and Punta del Este, both failed to comply, on the one hand, with the manual on money laundering and, on the other, the inconsistency of the transactions that did not coincide.
The first case establishes that the company was informed on May 31 of this year where it was verified that it had failed to comply with the action plan sent where it had been previously informed that, if it continued down that path, a sanction would be applied due to the faults that had been detected in a 2021 report.
In this way, after detecting the lack of information about clients, whether they are their owners, final beneficiaries or representatives, shortcomings were also detected in obtaining and updating their information. This makes it impossible to monitor more efficiently when controlling.
As a consequence, the superintendency decided to apply a fine of 325,000 Indexed Units (UI), equivalent to $50,096.33, at the current exchange rate.
The other case
About Brimar change (Akumal), from BCU It was decided to fine her because there were clients who received funds from abroad and did not match the person to whom they were deposited. On the other hand, it was proven that there were funds from transfers from the sale of shares that remained in the exchange account awaiting instructions.
In this way, and after the discharges by the exchange house, the superintendency determined that it is the obligation of the company to deliver the corresponding transfers to the account indicated in the payment order, even if there was a commercial relationship between both parties. .
As a consequence, the BCU applied a fine for a total of $50,096.33, adding an amount of $100,192 in penalties for both exchange houses.
Source: Ambito
