In an interview with Radio Pichincha, the expert mentioned the probability that money laundering would reach five percent of gross domestic product, i.e. five billion dollars.
According to Borja, this is happening much more frequently in Ecuador after dollarization, making the country an attractive hub for this type of illicit financial activity.
Their opinions are based on a recent study by the Strategic Center for Geopolitics (Celag), which states that money laundering reached $1.2 billion a year between 2007 and 2016, while it increased between 2017 and 2020 – during the Lenin governments Moreno and Guillermo Lasso – tripled height.
He specified that while the real economy is declining, the monetary one is booming and the only explanation for this is the drop in controls encouraged since the Moreno era and its changes to financial and monetary laws.
Although employment is falling and economic activity is irregularly inflated by the inflow of money, “the control authorities are responsible for that,” said Borja.
He recalled how, in the midst of the crisis caused by the pandemic, bank profits exceeded $500 million, in the midst of the hardship of the majority, precisely because of the influx of funds from illegal activities.
Among these he mentioned trafficking in drugs, arms, people and funds from theft of public assets and tax evasion.
That doesn’t help to stimulate the economy, but on the contrary favors the growth of crime, contract killers, robberies and murders, ie “it’s directly proportional, the economy isn’t growing, but insecurity is,” stressed Borja.
Ecuador ended 2022 with more than 25 homicides per 100,000 people, the highest rate in history.
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