A federal judge granted an injunction to former PRI governor of Tamaulipas, Tomás Yarrington Ruvalcaba, ordering the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) to unfreeze his bank accounts, because the decision by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) did not comply with international guidelines.
On July 16 of last year, the president sought legal protection from Judge Ulises Oswaldo Rivera González, head of the Fourth District Court for Administrative Matters, against his inclusion on the UIF’s list of blocked individuals in December 2019.
Consequently, the judge determined that the UIF’s decision is contrary to legal certainty, since “the blocking of accounts belonging to clients and users of financial services can only be used as a precautionary measure related to procedures concerning compliance with international commitments undertaken in our country.
And not “when the reason for blocking the accounts has a strictly national origin, that is, when it is not carried out for the fulfillment of an international commitment, since in such cases the blocking, not being related to any specific administrative or jurisdictional procedure, would indeed be contrary to the principle of legal certainty,” he ruled.
In his ruling issued last March, Rivera González recalled that the now-defunct Second Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) ruled that the Financial Intelligence Unit’s (UIF) authority to order the blocking of accounts belonging to clients and users of financial services can only be used as a precautionary measure related to proceedings concerning compliance with international commitments undertaken by the Mexican State, and not when it derives from strictly national operations or origins, as in this case. Since it is not related to any specific administrative or jurisdictional proceeding, it violates the principle of legal certainty.
Therefore, the Court determined that although these considerations were issued by the previous composition of the Supreme Court, they remain in effect and are binding.
The judge clarified that under no circumstances will the effects of this ruling alter the legal status of other individuals whose accounts are blocked in the financial system, nor will it prevent the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit from issuing subsequent agreements or resolutions regarding the account or investigation of the complainant, which may be done with due justification.
Source: eluniversal
