Mexican prosecutors accuse ex-president of directing graft: newspaper

  • 11/12/2020
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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Ex-Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto ordered aides to bribe lawmakers to enact reforms in the benefit of foreign firms, according to a document from the attorney general’s office published Thursday by daily newspaper Reforma.The document, a request for an arrest warrant for an especially powerful former minister in Pena Nieto’s 2012-2018 administration, describes the former president as running “a state within a state” that employed “its own system of criminal power” centered on distributing bribes from scandal-plagued Brazilian builder Odebrecht. The arrest warrant request for Luis Videgaray describes more than 121 million pesos ($6 million) in bribe payments allegedly distributed to key members of Congress to ensure passage of a sweeping energy opening to private companies, according to the newspaper. Reforma reported it had access to the document, which concludes that Videgaray was following the then-president’s orders, but added that an unnamed judge had not yet ruled on the document’s legality. The document does not request a warrant for Pena Nieto.

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