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Latin Lawyer - GIR Live 7th Annual Anti-Corruption and Investigations Conference

São Paulo, Brazil

Alejandra Montenegro Almonte will speak at the Latin Lawyer - GIR Live 7th Annual Anti-Corruption and Investigations Conference on October 17, 2019, in São Paulo.  Montenegro Almonte will present, as part of a panel, "Regional Perspective on Corruption and Its Close Cousins: Fraud, Money Laundering, Cartels, and More." 

As Operation Lava Jato and its progeny demonstrate, the potential links among corruption, fraud, money laundering, and cartels are undeniable and perhaps unavoidable. The proceeds of criminal activity often require laundering, and cartels unsurprisingly may rely on corruption in order to carve up markets and unfairly procure government contracts. For example, in Brazil's Operation Resonance, authorities arrested individuals accused of defrauding healthcare bids through price-fixing cartels. In Mexico, the arrest warrant issued in June for the former head of Pemex encompassed offenses including bribery, fraud, and money laundering. Colombia's former National Anti-Corruption Director and a local lawyer previously pleaded guilty in the United States to participating in a conspiracy to launder money to promote foreign bribery. Authorities in Peru charged a former president and his wife with money laundering – and, in the case of his wife, also the crime of concealment – flowing from alleged corruption. Meanwhile, the Panama Papers unleashed a trail of investigative and enforcement activity entailing fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, and more. This panel of anti-corruption experts will address these persistent connections and more broadly the state of enforcement in the region.