The Secretary of the Civil Service asked the National Banking and Securities Commission for Peña Nieto’s financial information, his children, and his former wife, Angélica Rivera.
MEXICO CITY (El Universal) – The federal government headed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered that all accounts and financial movements made by former President Enrique Peña Nieto and his closest relatives during his administration be traced in at least 50 national and foreign banking institutions.
The Financial Intelligence Unit of the Treasury Department, headed by Santiago Nieto Castillo, requested from the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) all financial information on accounts, movements, signed contracts, credits or houses, in detail, of the current PRI federal congressman Luis Enrique Miranda, who was Peña Nieto’s social development secretary, and his wife, Alma Laura Saldaña Farach.
In a first document, of which El Universal has a copy, the Secretary of Public Function (SFP) requested the National Banking and Securities Commission to review all the movements in the bank accounts of former President Peña Nieto and said instruction extends to his ex-wife, Angélica Rivera Hurtado and his children Paulina Peña Pretelini, Nicole Peña Pretelini, Alejandro Peña Pretelini and Diego Alejandro (the former PRI president’s minor son).
The request for information was sent by the Secretary of Public Service, Irma Eréndira Sandoval, to Sandro García Rojas Castillo, who is the Vice President of the Supervision of Preventive Processes, and was received on April 14. It details that an investigation is being carried out in the area of patrimonial evolution against the former president.
The petition lists at least 50 banking institutions where Peña Nieto and his relatives could have accounts, such as Banca Afirme, Banco del Bajío, ABC Capital Banco, Citibanamex, Santander, HSBC, Bancofiel, Bank of China México, Bank of America México, American Express Bank México, Banco Azteca, BBVA México and Banco Multiva, among others.
The Public Function requests access to information on checking accounts, savings, bank deposits, loans, and any other type of banking operations from December 1st, 2012, when Peña Nieto took office, to November 30th, 2018, when his six-year term ended.
The office also requests a review in exchange houses, savings entities and other related “in which appear with the character of the authorized holder and beneficiary” of Peña Nieto Angélica Rivera, Paulina Peña, Nicole Peña, Alejandro Peña, and Diego Alejandro Peña.
After this search, the Public Function requests that it be provided with “certified copies of the documentation relating to account statements, opening files including signature registration contracts, documentation provided for the opening and modifications made to the specific file, files taken on the occasion of mortgage credit contracts, automobile loans, personal loans, and consumer loans, as well as information relating to the date of granting, original amount, term and balance to date.”
El Universal consulted the Public Service on the authenticity of the document, and a spokesperson for the institution responded that in any investigation, for the sake of due process, it is complicated to give information or comments in one way or another.
Under the magnifying glass
In a second letter, the Financial Intelligence Unit requested all the information relating to the current federal congressman from the PRI, Luis Enrique Miranda, and his wife Alma Laura Saldaña Farach, from 2010 to date, “to exercise the powers of analysis and processing of information conferred on this Financial Intelligence Unit.”
This document, of which El Universal also has a copy, describes Luis Enrique Miranda and Alma Laura Saldaña as “investigated” and also requests all information on accounts, signed contracts, credits, or houses in the name of either of them.
“This request is to be made to the Compliance Officer of the requested institution, and therefore the following information is made, in the corresponding electronic form, and the case applicable under the provisions and their corresponding annexes, as of November 2017, in an electronic Excel file that may be modified, concerning the information on each contract, credit and/or house, account located or registered in the name of the persons investigated or in their capacity as co-owners and/or authorized or empowered third parties, final beneficiaries, shareholders, trustees, settlors or any other figure in which they do not act as direct holders”, the document says.
The detailed monthly statements requested are from 2010 to date, or from the opening of the account, if later, to the date of receipt of this.
It also requested the customer identification file where the physical features of the holder, co-holder, interveners, and authorized or empowered third parties are displayed.
Also, documentary evidence of their respective domiciles and, where appropriate, of their verifications; also, the opening contracts and the register of authorized signatures. Likewise, the deeds of incorporation and the documents containing the powers of attorney of the legal representatives when they are not included in said deeds. “The steps taken to comply with this application SHALL NOT, FOR ANY REASON, ALERT THE CUSTOMER,” explains the second sheet of the second document.
Confirmation
This Thursday, the head of the FIU himself, Santiago Nieto, announced that Luis Enrique Miranda is under investigation. However, he did not offer more details on which cases.
Nieto Castillo assured that the intention is not to imprison former officials of the past administration just for seeing them in jail but to take the cases to court to end impunity.
“Complaints have been filed against Emilio Lozoya (former director of Pemex and in the process of extradition), a case against Luis Miranda is in the process of being investigated, and hear what the president has told me is that we have to have a policy of zero tolerance for corruption and impunity,” Santiago Nieto said in a virtual meeting with PT congressmen.
Peña Nieto is absent from the country’s public life and was last seen in public on Wednesday, Sept. 18, when he dressed up with model Tania Ruiz for dinner at a New York restaurant.
It is worth remembering that on May 2, 2019, the former executive announced through his social networks the definitive separation from Angélica Rivera. And a few days ago, he reappeared on Twitter to mourn the deaths of his communications secretary, Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, and former Mexican governor Ignacio Pichardo.
