The Financial Intelligence Unit has blocked several accounts of the UNAM Faculty of Medicine

The Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) has blocked several accounts of the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) since December. The federal Treasury Department has opened an investigation into Luis Arturo González Nava, who was the administrative secretary of the faculty. The officials including the director of that school were authorized in the joint accounts. “The university has found no irregularities, not even on the part of the officer, but since he is involved in some of the UIF investigations and his name appears on faculty accounts, these have been blocked,” he said. Has gone.” GENERAL ATTORNEY OF EL PAÍS UNAM, HUGO CONCHA.

On December 7, 2023, the UNAM Finance Directorate warned that the accounts of the Faculty of Medicine, the school with the university’s largest budget, approximately 2,000 million pesos, were frozen. Luis Arturo González Nava, who was in charge of monitoring income and resource allocation, informed the study center that his personal accounts had also been blocked due to an investigation into alleged financial irregularities. González Nava worked for a time in the former Attorney General’s Office and also had a consulting office.

The UIF, led by Pablo López, has not issued any statement on the operation nor revealed what type of investigation it is conducting against the officer, but it has sent a blocking order on his accounts. All those in the faculty in which he was authorized were also included there. Neither the federal agency nor the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) informed the University or Medicine about the blockade.

Facing the setback, UNAM appointed a new head of the administrative secretariat of the Faculty and has already filed two judicial protections for the recovery of accounts. The first, about two from the bank Santender, was presented on 19 February against the UIF and the CNBV. For now, the administrative judge in Mexico City, Ulises Osvaldo Rivera Gonzalez, has rejected the provisional suspension — which would have forced him to unblock them already — and the university has filed a grievance appeal. The final suspension is expected to be resolved next week. Additionally, on Thursday the university submitted another injunction to the blocked HSBC bank accounts; Other accounts are also pending with a third bank.

So far the blockade has not had any impact on the functioning of the faculty. Most general expenses, such as salaries, depend on central offices, but the University is already prepared to support in case of final payment or to create other accounts if necessary. Concha, who is in charge of the university’s legal defense, says they are “confident and calm” that “the authority will release the accounts when they have the necessary information.”

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