Mexico’s Attorney General Investigating Ex-president Maria Verza - Associated Press
go to original August 3, 2022

In this Jan. 23, 2017 photo, Mexico's then-President Enrique Pena Nieto makes a pause during a press conference at the Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City. (Marco Ugarte/AP)

Mexico's Attorney General's Office said Tuesday that it has opened several lines of investigation against former President Enrique Pena Nieto, several weeks after the country's anti-money laundering agency accused the former leader of handling millions of dollars in possibly illegal funds.

Pena Nieto is under investigation for election-related crimes tied to company, money laundering and illicit enrichment, according to a statement from the Attorney General's Office.

The press statement referred to him only as "Enrique `P"' in keeping with Mexican policy of not identifying those accused of crimes. But an official with the prosecutor's office confirmed that it concerned Pena Nieto.

Pena Nieto governed Mexico from 2012 to 2018 and has since been living in Spain. When the criminal complaint from the Financial Intelligence Unit was announced last month, Pena Nieto wrote in his Twitter account that his money was legally obtained.

No charges have been filed.

Last month, Pablo Gomez, the head of the unit said a company run by Pena Nieto's family had "a symbiotic relationship" with a firm that received about $500 million in government contracts while he was president.

Tuesday's announcement did not add many details, but it did name Spanish construction company OHL, which has a subsidiary in Mexico, as being involved in a number of the allegations against Pena Nieto. It said charges could come in that investigation in the coming months.

Read the rest at CTV News

Related: Will an Investigation of a Former Mexican President Lead to Charges? (The New York Times)

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