Alonso Ancira Elizondo, chairman of the Board of Directors of the company Altos Hornos de Mexico, is under arrest. The Spanish police captured it this May 28 in Majorca, Spain, but the case goes back years ago. It detonates a plant in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, and involves the Brazilian company Odebrecht, indicated for making bribes millionaires in several countries of Latin America.
The story is part of the decision of Pemex, at the beginning of the government of PRI Enrique Peña Nieto (2014), to buy the company Agro Nitrogens from Altos de Mexico, and also acquire Grupo Fertinal, for an amount of 11 billion pesos.
At that time the oil company, under the direction of Emilio Lozoya, who before leading Pemex was part of the campaign team of Peña Nieto, justified the purchase of both companies selling the idea that they would help to revive the national fertilizer industry.
The above, although voices in the sector had warned that it was a business without many expectations of success, with overproduction in the international market and that moved at low prices.
Over time, journalistic investigations and the Federation’s Superior Audit (ASF) revealed that these acquisitions had been a fiasco. And not only that, but also the purchase of Agro-Nitrogens was part of a resource transfer shed to companies Offshore, used by Odebrecht for its scheme of bribes.
Agro nitrogenous was a “junk” plant, which was 14 years old without operating, and Pemex still allocated about 475 million dollars, to buy the assets and rehabilitate it. A “lousy business”, according to specialists.
In January 2017, Political Animal It reported that only in the period January-September of the previous year the business unit of Pemex Fertilizers had registered a loss of 334,288,000 pesos.
In total, the losses of Pemex fertilizers, in 2016, were 2.800% higher than those of the previous year. In addition, the production of fertilizers did not increase, but on the contrary, reduced 4% from 2014 to 2016.
Already in 2018, the federation’s Superior Audit, in its analysis of the public account, confirmed that Pemex’s initiative to “revive” the national fertilizer industry had been a failure.
In the end an investigation of Fifth Element Lab showed the links of this purchase with the case of Odebrecht, which while in other countries had cimbrado to the political class, in Mexico seemed to have no consequences, facing the final line of the government of Enrique Peña Grandson.
According to Fifth Element Lab, one month after Pemex bought Agro-nitrogens from blast furnaces in Mexico, the latter transferred more than 3.7 million dollars to the accounts of Grangemouth trading Company.
Grangemouth Trading Company, detailed the report, is a firm Offshore Of the Odebrecht construction company, from which millions of dollars were distributed to bribe politicians from the countries in which the Brazilian enterprise had operations, including Mexico.
Of the accounts of Grangemouth, referred Fifth Element Lab, in turn were transferred 5 million dollars to Zecapan SA, another Offshore Where allegedly bribes were deposited with Lozoya, according to the testimonies to the Brazilian justice of three Odebrecht executives.
Read > > Odebrecht case: Authorities investigate House acquired by Lozoya in Las Lomas
With this background, Lozoya was summoned to testify by the PGR in 2018, and since then has been involved in a judicial process, which already continued with the new government, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, and also had an impact on the Mexican blast furnaces .
On May 27th, it was reported that the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Treasury, focused on preventing and combating operations with resources of illicit origin, froze bank accounts, both Lozoya-disabled as a public official For a period of 10 years-as of the company blast furnaces of Mexico.
“The above every time you It identified in the national and international financial system that multiple operations were carried out with resources that allegedly do not come from licit activities, which are presumed to be derived from acts of corruption “, He said Hacienda.
And one day later, it was confirmed that Alonso Ancira Elizondo, president of the Mexican high furnaces, had been detained by the Spanish national Police in Majorca. In the case of Lozoya, there is an arrest warrant against him. Now he’s on the lam.
Although López Obrador, at the beginning of his government, said that he would seek to make a clean slate, and that there would be no persecution against politicians of the past, to concretize the arrest of Lozoya would be the highest-ranking exfunctionary of the government of Enrique Peña Nieto To be captured to face justice.
As for blast furnaces of Mexico and its owner, Alonso Ancira Elizondo, it remains to be clarified the case of Agro Nitrogens, whose treasury were to stop at least 275 million pesos, when it was acquired by Pemex, in a bad business for the country.
According to the attorney-General’s office, the employer’s arrest was the result of a complaint filed on 5 March by the Legal guardian of Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), on the occasion of a series of crimes that motivated “serious damage to the property” to that State Enterprise.
“At this time there are several warrants in execution, as a result of more than two months of various proceedings,” the prosecution said.
Ancira Elizondo, detailed a report of Notimex, is 67 years old, is a lawyer for the Anahuac University and has a doctorate honoris causa from the University of The Incarnated Word and the Texas A&M University, in San Antonio, Texas.
He held the presidency of the National Chamber of the Iron and steel industry. In 1991 he became general manager of the blast furnaces, and since 2016 he is president of the steel, the principal of Mexico.
In a statement, the company said it was unaware of what its president was accused of. The actions against him, he said, are “illegal and arbitrary, since there has been no fraudulent action on the part of the company or its president, nor has any time been required by an authority to clarify any financial act.”
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