Council of the Judiciary issues regulation to freeze funds for money laundering

The Plenary of the Council of the Judiciary issued the Regulation for Jurisdictional Management on Exceptional Administrative Precautionary Measures for the Freezing of Funds, through Resolution 212-2026, approved unanimously in Extraordinary Session No. 149-2026 on October 5, 2026, and published in the Fifth Supplement of Official Registry No. 384 on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. The regulation establishes the procedure by which judges specializing in corruption and organized crime must ratify, modify, or revoke the freezing of funds ordered by the Financial and Economic Analysis Unit (UAFE).

The regulation develops Article 17.3 of the Organic Law for the Prevention, Detection, and Combat of the Crime of Money Laundering and the Financing of Other Crimes, incorporated by the Third Reformatory Provision of the Organic Law of Social Transparency. This provision empowers the UAFE to immediately order the precautionary freezing of funds within the National Financial System when it identifies objective, serious, and verifiable evidence of a suspicious operation or one linked to possible financial crimes.

The resolution is based on Resolution 187-2026 of the Plenary, dated September 7, 2026, published in the Third Supplement of Official Registry No. 365 on September 9, 2026, which suppressed specialized judicial dependencies and redistributed criminal jurisdictions in Quito. Technical report DNGP-INF-016-INT and memorandum CJ-DNGP-2026-7774-M, dated September 25, 2026, along with circular memorandum CJ-DNJ-2026-0234-MC, dated October 2, 2026, supported the approval.

Jurisdictions and filing schedules

The regulation assigns jurisdiction to two first-level dependencies, via a lottery among judges:

• Judicial Unit of Criminal Guarantees and Specialized in the Adjudication of Crimes Related to Corruption and Organized Crime, based in the Iñaquito parish, Metropolitan District of Quito, province of Pichincha, for notifications submitted during regular business hours (08:00 to 17:00).
• Judicial Unit of Criminal Guarantees with Jurisdiction over Flagrant Offenses and Flagrancy of Crimes Related to Corruption and Organized Crime, based in the Mariscal Sucre parish, for notifications submitted outside of business hours (17:01 to 07:59), weekends, or holidays.

In the event of an excuse, recusal, or impediment of the selected judge, a new lottery will be conducted immediately, without affecting the calculation of the deadline. Judges must observe the principles of legality, proportionality, necessity, motivation, and due process.

Deadlines and destination of funds

• Financial entities must execute the freeze within a maximum period of 72 hours.
• The UAFE shall communicate the adoption and execution of the measure to the judiciary within the following 24 hours.
• The measure has a maximum validity of 8 days, within which the judge must rule.
• Once the measure is ratified and the fiscal investigation has begun, the frozen funds must be transferred within 5 days to a single account at the Central Bank of Ecuador, administered by the State as determined by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Confidentiality, notifications, and application

Judicial files shall be confidential and will not be visible to the public in the web query module of the Ecuadorian Automatic Judicial Processing System (SATJE). The resolution shall be notified to the UAFE, the Superintendency of Popular and Solidarity Economy, and the Superintendency of Banks; access to the file may only be requested if the measure was ratified.

The transitional provisions establish three implementation deadlines:

• 3 days for the National Directorate of Procedural Management to configure the SATJE catalog.
• 3 days for the General Directorate to socialize the resolution with the UAFE and the superintendencies.
• 30 days to coordinate training on the use of the Electronic Judicial Management Office.

The resolution is effective from its approval and was signed by president Mercedes Johanna Caicedo Aldaz, members Magaly Camila Ruiz Cajas, Alfredo Juvenal Cuadros Añazco, and Fabián Plinio Fabara Gallardo, and general secretary Marco Antonio Cárdenas Chum.

The regulation provides a unique procedure and certain deadlines for a tool that can freeze bank accounts before any formal charges are filed, meaning its application directly affects those under investigation and obliges the financial system to execute orders within 72 hours. The confidentiality of the files and their exclusion from the SATJE limit public access to information, while the transfer of funds to the Central Bank of Ecuador concentrates the custody of the frozen resources within the State.

Source: Official Registry, Fifth Supplement No. 384, Tuesday, October 6, 2026, Judicial Function and Indigenous Justice, p. 11 (official reference: Resolution 212-2026).