Summary Mexico ranks second only to China in financial losses to crime, corruption and tax evasion.
MEXICO CITY: Mexico saw an estimated $476 billion leave the country through corruption, criminal activity or sale of illegal goods between 2001 and 2010, a distant second behind China with $2.7 trillion, according to the Washington-based Global Financial Integrity.
Nearly half of the multinational companies in the Annual Global Fraud Survey from the private security and risk-management firm Kroll said they feel vulnerable to corruption in Mexico, the highest percentage for any country next to India. The firm polled 839 senior executives worldwide.
The Kroll report notes that under former President Felipe Calderon, 83 people were convicted of money-laundering, "a tiny number given the size and extent of the problem."
A third report released this month shows that Mexican businesses lost $9 billion in 2011 to insecurity and crime.
The study released last week by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, the country s census bureau, said more than one third of 27,000 companies surveyed were victims of crime in 2011. Six out of 10 companies did not report the crime to Mexican authorities.
The Business Victimization Survey 2012 also revealed that companies greatest fears surround transporting good on Mexican highways, with 43 percent of those surveyed saying they felt insecure transporting goods.
President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office Dec. 1, has proposed dissolving the Secretary of Public Functions, now charged with fighting public corruption, and creating a new anti-corruption commission that has yet to be approved in congress.
The Mexican economy grew about 3 percent in 2012 and the new government is predicting nearly 4 percent in the new year. The Brazilian central bank this month lowered its growth projection for 2012 from 1.6 percent to 1 percent.
According to the Global Financial Integrity report released Dec. 17, Mexico s illicit financial flows peaked at $61 billion in 2008 and has dropped to $51 billion a year since then.
Mexico was third in 2010 behind China and Malaysia in top exporters of illegal capital, the most recent year for which data is available.
The non-profit research and advocacy group, which studies illicit financial flows in developing countries, said the money ends up in off-shore tax shelters and legitimate banks.
The report s authors call the estimates conservative because they don t include dealings in bulk cash, such as proceeds from drug trafficking, human smuggling and other criminal activities settled in cash.
