Prosecutor Marlene González stated that the Paraguay Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating the traceability of funds moved by Banco do Brasil and Banco Continental, both mentioned in reports from the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money Laundering (Seprelad) and in the forensic audit conducted at the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) in 2017. The case, registered under number 47/2021, involves a complex circuit of international transfers and trusts.
“It is a quite complex case, but we are carrying out the procedures,” González declared. She explained that the funds under suspicion were sent to banks abroad and from there re-entered Paraguay. “All reports are being requested abroad to see if the same money that left here is the same that comes back in. From the moment it crosses our borders, we depend heavily on the reports that foreign banks provide us. About a year ago, we received a lot of documentation sent by the Bahamas. This case is quite complicated,” she detailed.
The prosecutor added that a recent request was made to respond to clarifications requested by banks in New York and the Bahamas. “We depend a lot on them. There is a range of situations being investigated here, so it is very important for us to do this traceability to prove whether it was the same money,” she said.
González admitted that the reports initially received from abroad were very ambiguous. The current focus of the investigation is to thoroughly verify the movements of Banco do Brasil, with the aim of proving that the money that left that institution did not return to its accounts, but was diverted to Banco Continental for the establishment of trusts, as described in the forensic audit and Seprelad reports.
The passive stance of Conmebol, chaired by Alejandro Domínguez, draws attention, especially after recent revelations by The New York Times. The publication brought to light a complaint to the FIFA Ethics Committee against Domínguez and another senior Confederation official, accused of appropriating part of the funds recovered from the FIFAgate scandal, allegedly receiving more than 5 million dollars as a “bonus” or secret commission, after managing the return of money diverted in the corruption schemes.