Anti-money laundering group suspends Colombia after President Petro declassifies confidential report
Associated PressBOGOTÁ, Colombia — The Egmont Group, an international organization created to combat money laundering, said Monday that it has suspended Colombia’s access to its global information sharing platform, after President Gustavo Petro shared confidential information that Colombian officials had obtained from the group. The Egmont Group said in a statement that Colombia’s government will no longer have access to a secure web used by the group to share data on financial crimes and that can be accessed by 177 member countries. Earlier this month, Petro read out information from a document obtained through the Egmont Group suggesting that in 2021, Colombia’s government, which was then headed by conservative President Iván Duque, paid an Israeli company $11 million in cash to acquire Pegasus spyware. Security analysts have said Colombia’s suspension from the Egmont Group’s information sharing platform weakens the nation’s capabilities to detect illegal transactions made by drug trafficking groups, and other criminal organizations.
History of this topic
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