Photo: Deposit Photos

By KELIN DILLON 

According to the latest iteration of the Financial Secrecy Index, ranking the fiscal transparency of different global corporations and companies, Mexico sits at 80th out of the 133 countries on the list, placing the country firmly as one of the least financially transparent nations in the world.

Mexico earned a 52.7 out of 100 points on the index’s scale, which is assembled by the British-based Tax Justice Network, taking into account Mexico’s policies and laws that make it easier to hide private transactions and finances than in other countries.

“Financial secrecy not only allows people to launder money and evade their tax responsibilities, it keeps drug cartels bankable, human trafficking profitable, and terrorist financing viable,” read the report.

Guillermo Ruiz, president of the Money Laundering Prevention Commission of the College of Public Accountants of Mexico, indicated that Mexico’s lack of financial transparency is indicative of the nation’s larger corruption problems as a whole, allowing unscrupulous fiscal activity to largely go unchecked.

“If you stop paying taxes in the United States, it is considered serious and it is almost an imprisonable offense, and here in Mexico, you have many means of defense to get away with it,” said Ruiz.

In contrast, the United States scored a 62.9 and the first-place Cayman Islands earned a score of 76 on the index.