Mexico City — Mexico’s Prosecutor’s Office (FGR) has opened an investigation into former president Enrique Peña Nieto, the head of the FGR’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), Pablo Gómez, has confirmed.
The investigation is linked to a series of transfers totaling 26 million pesos ($1.26 million) made by a direct relative of the former president that were detected by the UIF, Gómez said during Thursday’s morning press conference by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“The complaint has been filed, the investigation file has already been opened,” he added.
Gómez made reference to the former president without mentioning his name.
Enrique Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolution Party (PRI). governed from 2012 to 2018.
The head of the UIF also mentioned the existence of two companies, dedicated to commerce, with links to the president and his family.
One of those companies had a “symbiotic” relationship with a transnational company that was a government contractor, and one of the companies linked to Peña Nieto benefited from contracts during the administration of the former president worth 10.53 billion pesos ($513.4 million) between 2013 and 2018.
Gómez specified that it is now up to the Attorney General’s Office, headed by Alejandro Gertz Manero, to carry out the investigation and establish if any crimes were committed by the former president.
“As long as there is no prosecution of a case, there is no crime yet,” added Pablo Gómez.
Enrique Peña Nieto, who left the presidency in December 2018 after the electoral triumph of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, currently resides in Spain, where he settled after securing a so-called ‘golden visa’ that allows investors who acquire assets for at least one million euros to remain in the country, according to El País newspaper.
Enrique Peña Nieto reportedly bought a property in the Chamberí neighborhood in Madrid, but lives in a luxury home owned by a construction company, according to the Spanish newspaper.
