Mexico’s campaign to end corruption in focus at Rice’s Baker Institute

MEDIA ADVISORY

Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu

Mexico’s campaign to end corruption in focus at Rice’s Baker Institute

HOUSTON – (Aug. 21, 2019) – Santiago Nieto, director of Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit, will speak at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy Aug. 28 on how the country’s new strategy to combat corruption has improved the rule of law and discuss plans to develop a national system against money laundering and terrorism financing.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s approach to ending corruption involves a little-used tool: financial intelligence. Investigating suspicious transactions has proved essential to discovering entire networks of shell companies, influence-peddling and money laundering, according to event organizers. Between 2018 and 2019, Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit has doubled the number of intelligence reports passed on to the country’s attorney general to investigate and prosecute corruption by former top government officials and prominent private figures.

The cost of attendance is $20 for the public, and registration is at www.bakerinstitute.org/events/2016. The event is hosted by the Baker Institute’s Center for the United States and Mexico.

Who: Santiago Nieto, director of the Financial Intelligence Unit in Mexico’s Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit.

What: A presentation titled “Mexico’s New Strategy Against Corruption: A Conversation with Santiago Nieto.”

When: Wednesday, Aug. 28, 9:30-11 a.m. Breakfast will be provided at 9.

Where: Rice University, James A. Baker III Hall, Doré Commons, 6100 Main St.

A live webcast will be available at the event page, www.bakerinstitute.org/events/2016.

Members of the news media who want to attend should RSVP to Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

For a map of Rice University’s campus with parking information, go to www.rice.edu/maps. Media should park in the Central Campus Garage (underground).

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Founded in 1993, Rice University’s Baker Institute ranks among the top three university-affiliated think tanks in the world. As a premier nonpartisan think tank, the institute conducts research on domestic and foreign policy issues with the goal of bridging the gap between the theory and practice of public policy. The institute’s strong track record of achievement reflects the work of its endowed fellows, Rice University faculty scholars and staff, coupled with its outreach to the Rice student body through fellow-taught classes — including a public policy course — and student leadership and internship programs. Learn more about the institute at www.bakerinstitute.org or on the institute’s blog, http://blog.bakerinstitute.org.