Ecuador's arrangement to launder money for Iran

Reuters:

Ecuador's inclusion on an international list of nations accused of lagging in the fight against money laundering is a hypocritical punishment for its relations with Iran, Ecuador's president said on Saturday.

"What arrogance! And why? Because we have relations with Iran. That's it," Rafael Correa said at his weekly town hall meeting. "This is imperialism in its most base form. ... This has nothing to do with the struggle against money laundering."

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, comprising governments and regional organizations, named Ecuador this week among Iran and others as nations failing to comply with international regulations against money laundering and financing terrorism.

Under the leftist Correa, Ecuador has strengthened diplomatic and commercial ties with Iran, which has opened an embassy in Quito and is forging wider relations across Latin America despite the concerns of Washington.

The United States and its European allies have been trying to pressure Iran to suspend its disputed nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover to build bombs. Tehran says it is for peaceful purposes.

"We have been blacklisted along with Iran, Ethiopia, Angola and North Korea. We are the financiers of terrorism in the world!" Correa said indignantly.

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While enjoying high popularity for his social policies, Correa has had difficult ties with foreign investors, defaulting on more than $3 billion debt in 2008 and ordering the renegotiation of contracts with oil companies.

Correa said Ecuador's two dozen banks had perfectly adequate legislation to protect against laundering and terrorism financing and dismissed the report as "a huge lie."

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Iran has reached an agreement with the Central Bank of Ecuador to allow the Export Development Bank of Iran to operate in Ecuador. See this earlier post. It is that arrangement that got them on the money laundering list and it was probably arranged to help Iran avoid the effects of the sanctions that have already been opposed on the regime of religious bigots.

Correa's demagoguery can't hide the facts of his arrangements with Iran. Venezuela has also arranged to help Iran avoid sanctions and has even offered to provide gasoline to Iran, even though it does not have enough for its own people because of its shrinking refinery capacity that followed Chavez's takeover of the business.