INFORME DE INVESTIGACION U.S.A SOBRE FUNDICIONES DE MEDELLIN

U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENTU.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITYWashington, D.C.

Financial Crimes in South America
EL DORADO TASK FORCE


Through out history Gold exports in Colombia have been involved with very high complex money laundering schemes primarily used by Drug dealers and right wing paramilitaries to fund their war and drug distribution efforts through traditional Colombian refineries located in Medellin (Fundicion Escobar, Fundicion Alvarez, Fundicion Gutierrez ).The owners of these refineries have very important political power throughout Colombia and their regions due to the associations with paramilitary groups .Due to their power and connections gold laundering has been permitted throughout the years allowing outrageous export results that do not concur with Colombia’s gold production in the past five years Colombian gold exports have grown over 350 % in five years without any trace of big mining discoveries.


History of gold money laundering in Colombia

1975 gold exports were restricted by the government and were only allowed to the three main refineries located in Medellin During these years the biggest gold laundering schemes was held in Colombia .the Colombian government through out an outrageous law gave an 30% incentive on gold purchases During this time Colombia was the country that gave the best price for gold in the world .The scheme consisted in the following manner The Medellin cartel brought planes from panama full of Swiss gold bullion directly to the refinery’s offices in the Olaya Herrera airport (Medellin ) witch then the refineries sold to the Colombian central bank and laundered million and millions of dollars. This is an example of the amazing power the refineries in partnership with the Medellin cartels had on the Colombian government to permit an outrageous law to be passed, That fueled money laundering activities



2000-2004 Again the three refineries with the help and political influence of the right wing paramilitaries and drug dealers passed an outrageous law that gave a 4% later on 2% incentive on gold exports in the presentation of gold pigments (paint) with no logical reason .An atypical phenomenon occurred similar to what is happening today with gold exports mysteriously the refining companies which in the years before exported only gold from mines and paid a 4% tax on gold from mines .As the law was approved they started making gold pigments and mysteriously they stopped exporting gold from mines(exports of gold that paid 4% tax stopped completely for these years ).With not a single alert from the government officials because they were scared of making any comment . The refineries in 1999 were paying their customers nearly 96% of international gold price and because of the governments incentive they started paying 100% some 102% of international gold prices which causes all the proper conditions to promote gold laundering through out this law the Colombia government stopped receiving in taxes originated from mines around 120 million dollars and instead paid a sum of around 90 million dollars of incentives to these refineries




1975 -2000 and 2004-2006 The government incentive was stopped and the refineries mysteriously again started exporting gold from mines. The scheme they use when paying the 4% tax is that the refineries directly negotiated with the majors of the right wing paramilitary regions and agreed if the tax was distributed to the area of their influence they the major gave back 1.5% of the total in cash, this irregularities are permitted because Colombian government officials did not have access in paramilitary controlled regions and were not able to make sure the money from the taxes were invested properly .The tax money headed to these regions are to fund drug and paramilitary activities with absolute no government control of these regions .


2006-2007 Again a law is passed that benefits the refineries that exempts the payment of 4% tax on gold scrap (damaged jewelry ect) suddenly in the year 2006 the refineries stopped exporting gold from mines and started mysteriously exporting gold scrap nearly in less than a year gold scrap exports incremented in more than 600% .With out any government officials complaint. All of these irregularities contribute to gold laundering

2001 -2006 The strict change controls in Venezuela and lack of control in money laundering activities in this country makes it the ideal place to make money laundering schemes for the refineries due to the restriction to the selling Us dollars in Venezuela a Black market for the Bolivar and Us dollars was created in Colombia purchasing illegal us dollars from drug transactions to sell them in Venezuela currently the change gap between the official Bolivar-USD and Black USD –to Bolivar is around 20%.Under these conditions the refineries in Medellin have smuggled millions of dollars to Colombia and exported through Medellin to the Us and Switzerland having outrageous profits through currency trade difference .The refineries have the following scheme Clients form Venezuela come to their offices they leave the gold for assay and then to avoid traveling from Medellin to Cucuta (Main Border city between Colombia –Venezuela ) with US dollars they use the following method The san Andresitos (places where smuggled products are sold and drug money is legalized )are located in major Colombian cities (Medellin-Bogota-Cali-Cucuta) primarily controlled by paramilitaries and drug cartels have large amounts of cash in Colombian pesos and Us dollars the refineries order the payment of the gold in the Cucuta sanandresitos in black dollars and then they are smuggled back into Venezuela to buy more gold The black dollar is sold only by money launderers such as the Sanandresito owners because there are strict controls of legal USD currency trade in Colombia.


2007 The change gap between the official Bolivar-USD and Black USD –to Bolivar rose to 40% and recent political decisions made by Venezuelan president to stop gold exports in that country fueled the Colombian gold exports the scheme used by these refineries are similar but now they buy the gold directly from MINERVEN (mineros de venezuela) the profit is not in the gold purchase it is because the refineries buy the gold with drug dollars which make the currency trade difference in between 30% and 40% of profit since 2007 the main refineries have incremented their exportations significantly due to the conditions which favor money laundering






Interesting documents related to gold money launderes wich name the three companies in medellin

http://www.elabusador.com/docs/0525.doc EL ESPECTADOR (NEWSPAPER)
http://www.semana.com/wf_InfoArticulo.aspx?IdArt=90723 SEMANA (MAGAZINE)

http://www.eltiempo.com/economia/2007-06-24/ARTICULO-WEB-%20NOTA_INTERIOR-3608941.html EL TIEMPO

http://www.caracol.com.co/noticias/409743.asp?id=409743 CARACOL

http://www.portafolio.com.co/port_secc_online/porta_econ_online/2007-06-25/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR_PORTA-3552461.html PORTAFOLIO

ROBO REGALIAS DE ORO (COLOMBIA )INFAME !!!!!!!

Apreciados Amigos Periodistas,




Por medio de la presente les hago una denuncia sobre una situación que se ha salido de control en estos últimos 2 años referente a las regalías de oro. Ya que es su deber como colombianos y más aun como periodistas informar al público lo sucedido con las regalías de oro en el país.

El día de ayer Junio 5, 2007 se hizo una incautación en las aduanas de Medellín a una reconocida Comercializadora Internacional De Metales Preciosos (Fundición Escobar). Desde octubre del 2005 Las principales fundiciones de Medellín empezaron a exportar oro de mina en presentación de oro en desuso (chatarra) .En el año 2006 misteriosa mente hubo un incremento en las exportaciones de oro en desuso (Chatarra) de alrededor de 700% mientras las exportaciones de el oro de mina (oro que paga una regalía del 4% ) tuvo una caída importante de alrededor del 70% con referencia al año anterior .Teniendo en cuenta que el oro en desuso no paga regalías !! El gobierno nacional especialmente las regiones productoras de oro han dejado de recibir por concepto de regalías alrededor de 90.000.000.000. de pesos .

La incautación de este material fue causado por lo siguiente, En meses pasados Ingeominas se percato de este problema en Medellín e inmediatamente se puso en contacto con la DIAN para que pusieran controles estrictos sobre las exportaciones de oro con revisiones físicas de cada exportación por agentes de la aduana. Al hacer estas revisiones, oficiales de Ingeominas y de la aduana se dieron cuenta de anomalías como la presentada ayer, el sistema utilizado fue el siguiente estas fundiciones en Medellín son reconocidas por la comercialización de oro de mina históricamente han exportado bajo esta partida arancelaria desde que se crearon. Tan pronto estas fundiciones supieron que el oro en desuso no paga regalías se volcaron a la producción de joyas para evadir esta regalía (las tres principales fundiciones de Medellín también son fabricantes industriales de joyas que exportan a estados unidos tienen a su disposición los mejores equipos del país para la producción de joyas) El método que usan estas fundiciones son la de producción de joyas por medio de Casting. Bajo este método la producción masiva de joyas es relativamente fácil se pueden trasformar 30 kilos de oro o mas dependiendo de la maquinaria .Usando el oro mina para trasformarlo en joyas como anillos, dijes, o figuras en menos de un día .La detección de esto es un poco difícil ya que estas joyas cumplen con el requisito de dicha partida arancelaria. Hay tres formas de detectar estas anomalías las cuales son :

1. Análisis de contenido de oro (usualmente las joyas nacionales tienen un contenido de oro del 71% mas arriba que este contenido claramente es oro que proviene de minas)
2. La joya debe estar en desuso (Dañada, rota etc.), no puede estar nueva ¡!
3. Falta de variedad en diseños usualmente estas fundiciones tiene 3 o 4 modelos diferentes lo cual hace fácil identificar cualquier tipo de anomalía dado a lo sospechoso que es una exportación de 40 kilos de oro de solamente 3 diseños !!!

Lo cual el día de ayer la fundición Escobar cumplió con estos tres requisitos motivo de la detención de su mercancía.





Acudo a ustedes amigos periodistas por que eso es un tema que debe salir a la luz publica dado que estas fundiciones las conforman personas poderosas que han estado vinculadas a lavado de activos y diferentes irregularidades a través de los años y también son amigos cercanos al presidente Uribe. Les pido el favor que investiguen sobre el tema un poco para que no que este caso en la impunidad que con mucha seguridad estas fundiciones hacen cualquier arreglo para que nunca se sepa nada de este tema.



Adjunto le envió textos periodísticos donde se habla de la evasión de regalías y un tema que vincula a las tres fundiciones de Medellín con lavado de activos. También toda la información sobre incrementos de exportaciones de las partidas arancelarias están en las páginas de el Dane (BACEX) que es la base de datos de exportaciones para que tengan un sustento oficial de lo ocurrido Gracias por su atención.

http://www.elabusador.com/docs/0525.doc EL ESPECTADOR

http://www.semana.com/wf_InfoArticulo.aspx?IdArt=90723 SEMANA

http://www.eltiempo.com/economia/2007-06-24/ARTICULO-WEB-%20NOTA_INTERIOR-3608941.html EL TIEMPO

http://www.caracol.com.co/noticias/409743.asp?id=409743 CARACOL

http://www.portafolio.com.co/port_secc_online/porta_econ_online/2007-06-25/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR_PORTA-3552461.html PORTAFOLIO






Sinceramente,
Un Colombiano que esta cansado con la impunidad que gozan estos personajes que le hacen tanto daño al país.