Mexico: former president Pena Nieto investigated for corruption

(ANSA) - ROME, AUGUST 12 - The Mexico Attorney General has opened an investigation into former president Enrique Pena Nieto and his former finance minister, Luis Videgaray, for alleged corruption related to the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
    According to reports from the Mexican newspaper Milenio, the investigation is based on a complaint according to which the former president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) andVidegaray are accused of having ordered the distribution of over 500 million pesos (about 19 million euros) tents received by the Brazilian company to pay foreign advisors in the 2012 campaign, lawmakers and a political party.
    Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero reported the complaint against Pena Nieto and Videgaray was presented by the former director of the state oil company PetróleosMexicanos, Emilio Lozoya Austin, who was an adviser to Pena Nieto in his 2012 presidential campaign and who is being held on charges corruption, and today collaborates with Mexican justice.
    In a message to the media, the prosecutor reported that Lozoya, extradited to Mexico in July after being arrested in Spain, reported that Odebrecht had paid a series of bribes worth more than 100 million dollars that were "mainly used for the 2012 campaign" of the elections for the Mexican presidency.
    "The one who later became president (Peña Nieto) and his secretary to the Treasury (Luis Videgaray) are the people, Loyoza points out, who ordered this money to be handed over to various foreign advisors who collaborated and worked on the campaign," he said. Gertz.
    The prosecutor then reported that Lozoya also denounced the purchase of votes by the two accused to secure structural reforms in 2013 and 2014. "In that specific case, he also speaks of 120 million pesos, which the same people ordered to distribute to one deputy and five senators, "he explained. (HANDLE).