A former president of Mexico is the target of an investigation in his country, where authorities claim relatives funneled millions of pesos to his personal accounts in Spain.
On Thursday morning, the head of Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) Pablo Gomez announced that the Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into former Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Gomez made the announcement during the daily press briefing held by Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
“We detected a scheme where a former president of the republic (Pena Nieto) obtained economic benefit,” Gomez said. “In this scheme, it was observed that the leader, through international money transfers, received $26,001,429.74 pesos (approximately $1.3 million).”
According to Gomez, since the transfers were made in cash, authorities cannot determine the origins.
“These funds were transferred by a female blood relative from an account in Mexico to Spain,” the head of the UIF said.
The official also claimed that Pena Nieto was linked to two companies that benefited during his term in office.
Gomez claimed that he had asked the FGR to open an investigation, but said that Pena Nieto was not being charged with any crime since they could not yet determine if the money was legal or not.
In response to the public allegations against him, Pena Nieto took to social media to claim he was certain that the competent authorities would allow him to clear up any issues with the transfers.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.