P.R. Laws tit. 25, § 971b

2019-02-20 00:00:00+00
§ 971b. Prohibited activities

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person who has received any income derived directly or indirectly from any pattern of organized criminal activity or the collection of an illegal debt in which such person has participated as principal, as such term is defined in Art. 35 of the Penal Code of Puerto Rico, to use or invest, directly or indirectly, all or any part of such income, or the proceeds thereof, in the acquisition of any interest in, or in the establishment or operation of any enterprise or business.

(b) It shall be unlawful for any person to acquire or maintain any interest in or control of any enterprise, directly or indirectly, through a pattern of organized criminal activity or the collection of an illegal debt.

(c) It shall be unlawful for a person employed by or associated with any enterprise or business to participate, directly or indirectly, in the conduct of such enterprise’s affairs, through a pattern of organized criminal activity or the collection of an illegal debt.

(d) It shall be unlawful for any person to engage in, participate in or conduct any pattern of organized criminal activity through, or with the aid of any enterprise or business.

(e) It shall be illegal for any person to carry out or attempt to carry out by him/herself or through another, a financial act or transaction using assets originating or derived from, or linked with, a specific illegal activity intentionally, or cognizant of the fact that the financial transaction has been planned entirely or partially so as to conceal or dissemble the nature, location, origin, ownership, or control of the profits of a specific illegal activity or to fail to inform income originating from said transaction in violation of the provisions of the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the federal government, or any of its states.

(f) It shall be illegal for any person to transport, transmit or transfer, or to attempt to transport, transmit or transfer money or a monetary instrument in the Commonwealth or to the Commonwealth from any point of the United States of America or from a foreign country, with the intention of carrying out specific illegal activities or with the awareness of the fact that the money or monetary instrument constitutes an income derived from any specific illegal activity, with the purpose of concealing or dissembling the nature, location, origin, ownership, or control of the specific illegal activity or to fail to inform income from said transaction in violation of the provisions of the laws of the Commonwealth, the federal government, or any of the states thereof.

(g) It shall be illegal for any person to aid or abet the carrying out of a specific illegal activity, or to conceal or dissemble the nature, location, origin, ownership, or control of a specific illegal activity when there are reasons to believe that the income originates from said illegal activity or when he/she employs an agent of law and order, to carry out a financial transaction in order not to report income originating from said transaction carried out in violation of the provisions of the laws of the Commonwealth, the federal government, or any of its states.

History —July 13, 1978, No. 33, p. 468, § 3; June 19, 1987, No. 36, p. 120, § 2; Aug. 30, 1992, No. 52, § 3, eff. 30 days after Aug. 30, 1992.