First Lady of Mexico Among Ranks of Foreign Millionaires with Luxury Real Estate in the US Dolia Estevez - Forbes
go to original December 10, 2014

Angélica Rivera, wife of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, owns an ocean-front luxury condominium in Key Biscayne with an estimated value of $3.3 million. She bought it in 2005 for $1.7 million.

Public records show that Rivera, a former soap opera star, financed the condo with a $1.3 million, 30-year mortgage loan. In 2011, 46 days after her wedding to Peña Nieto, Rivera paid off the loan 24 years early.

Rivera is the first First Lady of Mexico - a country where 50% of the population is either poor or extremely poor – is the first to join the ranks of millionaires with “second homes” in the U.S.

Prominent billionaires in the same category are Carlos Slim Helú, who owns the only private mansion on Fifth Avenue, a century-old Beaux Arts townhouse; mining tycoon German Larrea, who recently purchased a penthouse and an apartment in Chicago’s Ritz Carlton Residence; and media mogul Emilio Azcarraga Jean, who owns an apartment and ocean-front mansion in Miami Beach, and a third residence in Coronado Cays, a high-end residential community near San Diego.

Mexican corrupt figures and shady politicians are also fond of investing in U.S. real estate. At the time of her arrest early last year, authorities found three residences in Coronado Cays connected to Elba Esther Gordillo, the once powerful leader of Mexico’s teachers union, who is currently serving time in a Mexican prison for embezzling millions of dollars from union funds to pay for her lavish lifestyle. One of the properties is a $4.7 million house on an exclusive cul-de-sac.

“There are no restrictions on U.S. realty purchases by foreign persons, corporations, etc. It is wide open,” says Peter Francis Geraci, a Chicago real estate attorney.

Read the rest at Forbes

Photo: YouTube/Angelica Rivera

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