Uruguay is a democratic, constitutional state, with a presidential regime, organized in three independent branches: Executive, Legislative and Judicial. The executive power is exercised by the President of the Republic, the Legislative by the General Assembly through a bicameral system, composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Representatives, and the Judicial Power which is exercised by the Supreme Court of Justice and its tribunals.
There is no Ministry of Justice in the governmental structure of the Republic of Uruguay. Its traditional functions are executed by the Ministry of Education and Culture to which the Prosecutors Office and the Central Authority are attached.
The Uruguay had already regulated the offence of money laundering in its legislation in 1998. However, it wasn’t until the year 2000 when an intense and aggressive legal, political and administrative campaign was organized for the regulation, control, prevention and repression of money laundering.
The money laundering offence was regulated in October 1998, through article 5 of law 17.016, which reformed article 54 of law 14.294, concerning monies related to drug trafficking. Article 30 of law 17.060 from 23 December 1998, also known as the Anti Corruption law, established that offences against the Public Administration could also be predicate offences for money laundering. This created two money laundering offences, which led to the creation of law 17.835 from 23 September 2004, which derogated article 30 of law 17.060 and in article 8 it expanded the list of predicate offences for money laundering as to include financial offences.
Uruguay’s main commercial partners are Brazil and Argentina. Although it is a small country in territory, it has a strong financial activity, as shown by the presence and activity of approximately 120 financial institutions. Historically, Uruguay has not had a massive presence of drug trafficking, international organized crime or money laundering. The country reports few cases of money laundering: no cases in 2004, one case in 2005, 14 cases in 2006 and 4 or 5 cases in 2007.
Suspicious activity reports (SAR) received by the FIU are also law. In 2006 it dealt with 94 reports and in 2007 there were 174 reports, of which only 6 were passed on to the criminal system. In three of these cases there was asset freezing for an amount of US$ 1.400.000. The first money laundering case was adjudicated in 2007. All money laundering cases dealt with in Uruguay have been related to drug trafficking.
Currently, Uruguay is committed to a gigantic task to better the legal framework, the preventive system in the financial and non financial sectors, the registry of legal persons, the real property registry and the capacity and resources of the Financial Intelligence Units. It has also taken the task of strengthening the international cooperation mechanisms for the exchange of evidence and information. The criminal process and the Uruguayan Criminal Code are also being reformed, as studied by a high level commission created by law 17.897 of September 14th 2005. The creation of specialized tribunals in organized crime has also started.
