The transactions made in Costa Rica by Peruvian politicians for the legitimation of resources derived from bribes would have violated the National Antilavado Law, or Law 7786. Specifically, these are violations of articles 16, 24 and 25 of the Law on Narcotic Drugs, psychotropic substances, drugs for unauthorized use, related activities, money laundering and financing of terrorism.
According to Costa Rican law, banks are required to obtain and keep information about the true identity of the persons in whose benefit an account is opened or when a transaction is made, when there are doubts that the client is not acting for his own benefit.
This is one of the points investigated by the Peruvian prosecutor’s office, in order to clarify whether Avraham Dan On and Eva Fernenbug acted as front-men of funds granted by Brazilian construction companies Odebrecht and Camargo to former President Alejandro Toledo of Peru, in order to obtain contracts for roads in that country.
Dan On and Fernenbug are people from the most intimate circle of Toledo, as it is their former head of security and his mother-in-law, respectively.
In the country they are listed as representatives of the companies Ecostate Consulting, Milan Ecotech Consulting and Ecoteva Consulting Group, which would have managed some $17 million in 2006. These firms maintained operations in Costa Rica at the former Interfin bank, which was acquired that same year by the Canadian Scotiabank.
Ten years later, the General Superintendence of Financial Institutions (SUGEG) opened a sanctioning process to investigate whether the Scotiabank Costa Rica bank had a responsibility or omitted procedures that would allow this type of transactions in the country. This Friday, SUGEF confirmed that Scotiabank is obliged to pay more than ¢ 1 billion as a fine.
Financial institutions are obliged to pay special attention to suspicious transactions, which take place outside the usual transaction patterns and those that are not significant but are periodic or without obvious legal or economic grounds.