Senate president Ramon Albuquerque received the proposal of the chief executive to create and empower a National Committee Against Money Laundering, in order to detect and prevent the practice and punish the perpetrators. The bill also establishes the country’s obligations to collaborate in bilateral and multi-national agreements concerning money laundering to which the DR is signatory, such as the 1996 Convention of Vienna Treaty Illicit Drug Traffic and the Interamerican Convention on Corruption, held in Caracas in 1996. The legislation recognizes the country’s financial sector – including banks, insurance companies, stock brokers, credit card issuers, and currency exchange agents – as particularly susceptible to money-laundering strategies. The legislation also establishes the legal framework for combating and punishing traffic in drugs, human organs, extortion, bribery of public officials, as well as irregularities among casinos, and businesses or dealers that sell luxury vehicles and water-craft, real estate, works of art, and jewelry
