TERRORISM FINANCE: FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE UNIT

C O N F I D E N T I A L LA PAZ 000500 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/AND TREASURY FOR SGOOCH E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/2017 TAGS: ECON EFIN KTFN PREL PTER SNAR BL SUBJECT: TERRORISM FINANCE: FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE UNIT UPDATE REF: A. STATE 5631 ¶B. STATE 10275 ¶C. 2006 LA PAZ 1391 Classified By: Ecopol Counselor Andrew Erickson for reason 1.4 (e). ¶1. (C) Post delivered reftel demarches to Bolivia's Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) on February 1. The UIF conducted a search of its database and told Econoff on February 23 that it had discovered no information on the names and organizations mentioned in refs A and B. (Note: The UIF's database only contains information regarding suspicious transactions submitted by formal financial institutions. The UIF does not have access to general bank records, unless under the auspices of a formal legal proceeding, due to legal provisions that provide for banking secrecy. End note.) ¶2. (C) Interim UIF President Roxana Rojas told Emboffs that the UIF's mandate, set to expire on January 8 by government decree 28713 (ref C),had been extended indefinitely by another decree, 28956, on November 29. Decree 28713 sought to replace the UIF with the UIFP, Financial and Property Intelligence Unit, which has yet to be legally created, but is outlined in an anti-corruption bill currently under consideration by congress. The UIFP, as currently outlined, would lack the capacity to effectively combat money laundering or terrorism finance. It is unclear if the GOB will eliminate the UIF once the UIFP is created. Meanwhile, the UIF staff has been reduced from around twenty people to five and the Unit is doing little work due to uncertainty about its future. Rojas added that she had not been paid during the past two months. Because Bolivia lacks a terrorism finance law, the Unit is only able to freeze assets for a maximum of 48 hours. Post has been working with the GOB for more than a year to promote the passage of an effective money laundering law that would include terrorism finance, but the government has not been extremely receptive to the idea, particularly terrorism finance, which is politically sensitive, as some members of the government have been accused of terrorist acts in the past. URS