Mexico City, Mexico — The former head of Finance and Foreign Relations has said he will challenge his disqualification from public office for 10 years, a resolution that was handed down by the Mexican Secretariat of the Civil Service.
The former head of Finance and Foreign Relations, Luis Videgaray Caso, said he will challenge the decision through institutional channels, adding that the Secretaría de la Función Pública did not have all the facts required at the time of their decision.
Videgaray was investigated for lack of veracity in patrimonial declarations. Specifically, he was investigated for three consecutive years (2015-2017), when he served as Secretary of Foreign Relations and as Secretary of Finance and Public Credit under Enrique Peña Nieto.
The former chancellor said that the bank accounts referred to by the Mexican Secretariat of the Civil Service are actually credit cards which did not have a debit balance on the date of reporting the statement.
“The statements are truthful and there was no intention to hide patrimonial information from the SFP,” said Videgaray.
The Secretaría de la Función Pública (Mexican Secretariat of the Civil Service) made their decision in May, however due to the elections, the resolution was not made public until now. On May 11, the Secretaría de la Función Pública concluded that as a sanction, Videgaray is to be disqualified for 10 years from occupying jobs, positions or commissions in the public service, for the lack of veracity in patrimonial declarations.
The sanction came after when in June 2019, the start of the equity investigation on who was Secretary of the Treasury and Public Credit from December 2012 to September 2016, began, which is when the agency learned about his possible participation in the irregular purchase of the AgroNitrogenized fertilizer plant.
Emilio Lozoya, former director of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has also been linked to the same purchase and is being prosecuted in Mexico for various crimes of corruption. However, Lozoya made an agreement with the prosecution to collaborate with justice.
“The sanction that is reported today is the maximum allowed by law within the procedure of responsibilities for omissions in the financial statements of a public servant and is independent of other investigation or sanction procedures that may be in progress by this or other authorities,” reported the Mexican Secretariat of the Civil Service.
