Former officials who are now accused or under investigation for corruption, alleged diversion of resources and even organized crime, headed in the last decade a dozen federal agencies and state governments through which they funded with almost 6 billion pesos to companies linked to the use of pegasus spy malware in Mexico.
The list ranged from a former state treasurer responsible for the diversion of more than 60 billion pesos that are still missing today, to a former finance secretary accused of having operated a bribery ring. And among them a former governor whose administration was known, among other things, for spying on activists and journalists.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) yesterday revealed the names of the public agencies that transferred resources to this network of companies, some of which are even front companies.
From that information Political Animal it now details who were the heads responsible for these secretariats and institutions that directly or indirectly funded the business network responsible for the illegal interception of communications of more than 15 thousand people in Mexico.
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Military Spies
According to the UIF, the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) transferred resources between 2014 and 2016 to the company Grupo Tech Bull SA de CV, the same intermediary company that sold pegasus software to the then Attorney General’s Office. In turn, it also sent resources to two other companies involved in the same plot: Proyectos y Diseños VME S.A. de C.V., and KBH Track S.A. de C.V.
All of these transfers occurred in the administration of former Defense Secretary Salvador Cienfuegos, who just last year was arrested in the United States on charges of providing support to alleged members of organized crime. A diplomatic complaint by Mexico, which was not notified of the inquiry, accelerated its investigation without the case going to trial.
This is not the first time that Cienfuegos’ administration has been linked to espionage practices, a fact that also becomes more serious since the National Defense is not an instance legally empowered to carry out this type of private communications interception.
July 2015 Political Animal revealed that under his management the Army had negotiated with the cyber espionage company “Hacking Team” the acquisition of a special version of the software “Galileo” with which it intended to intervene the communications of up to 600 targets. The purchase, in addition to being potentially illegal, would be made at a significant premium to the intermediary company Neonlinx.
Leaked internal emails from “Hacking Team” about this negotiation revealed that the military had also previously participated in the purchase of spying equipment from businessman Susumo Azano.
General Rogelio Castellanos Franco was directly responsible for these negotiations, who in the last six-year term held a managerial position in the General Staff of the National Defense.
On the other hand, the UIF revealed that the Ministry of the Navy was also involved in payments to the companies Grupo Tech Bull SA de CV and Balam Seguridad Privada, for amounts exceeding 140 million pesos, between 2013 and 2014. This is the period in which Admiral Vidal Francisco Soberón Sanz was in charge of that institution.
Awkward governors and treasurers
According to the information presented by the FIU, there were three state administrations that transferred resources to this network of companies during the last decade. One of them was the one headed by Javier Duarte in Veracruz which in 2014 reportedly paid just over 7.6 million pesos to the company Comercializadora de Soluciones Integrales Mecale SA de CV, linked to the espionage network.
The transfer coincides with the period in which the treasury of the state’s Finance Secretariat was occupied by the former federal deputy of the PRI, Antonio Tarek Abdala Saad, who, according to federal authorities, was the one who decided and approved any type of payment to suppliers.
Inquiries by the Federation’s Superior Audit Office identify Tarek Abdullah as the main person responsible for the diversion of more than 60 billion pesos of federal funds. Although he was denounced on multiple occasions, shortly before the end of the last six-year term he obtained a pardon from the then PGR for having collaborated in the criminal proceedings against Duarte himself.
Abdullah is currently a fugitive from justice. In 2020 a judge of the state of VeRacruz issued an arrest warrant against him for his link with the network of front companies through which more than three billion pesos were diverted in the entity.
The management of Javier Duarte – who is currently in prison serving a sentence for money laundering – was not only marked by corruption but also by the systematic violation of human rights and the harassment of activists and journalists. Allegations of alleged spying on his opponents were frequent, although they were never seriously investigated.
According to the Financial Intelligence Unit, the administration of Chiapas Governor Manuel Velasco (current senator for the Green Party) reportedly injected just over 26 million pesos into the Balam Private Security company.
The payments, according to the UIF, were authorized from the treasury of the State Finance Secretariat in 2014. The person responsible for that office in that year, according to the Declaranet portal, was Humberto Pedrero Moreno, who currently works in the Administration Directorate of the IMSS with Zoé Robledo at the helm.
In 2018 Pedrero resigned from the local Ministry of Finance to compete for a federal deputation for the 02 district of Bochil, Chiapas. Although he was originally elected, his victory was annulled by the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation because he allegedly provided false information to pass himself off as an indigenous person. On appeal, he succeeded in having that decision reversed.
Manuel Velasco’s administration in Chiapas has also faced allegations of corruption. Although there are no formal inquiries against him, journalistic investigations have corroborated mismanagement of resources. For example Political Animal documented the possible diversion of 685 million in payments to shell companies during his administration.
The third state government involved in the delivery of resources to the espionage network is that of the state of Mexico. According to the UIF, in 2013 the administration of Eruviel Ávila transferred just over 900 thousand pesos to Balam Seguridad Privada S.A. de C.V.
According to data from the ASF, the Avila administration is one of the ones that concentrates the highest amount of possible mismanagement of federal funds. To date, the fate of 15,816 million pesos transferred from the Treasury to his administration remains unclear.
The millionaire payments of the Treasury
From the Treasury of the Federation attached to the Ministry of Finance, millions of resources were also transferred to companies in this network. According to the UIF, payments amounted to more than 2,206 million pesos in various transactions to the companies Artículos Textiles Equipo y Accesorios S.A. de C.V., Proyectos y Diseños VME S.A. de C.V., Coordinadora de Imagen y Servicios Estratégicos S.A. de C.V., and KBH Track S.A. de C.V.
The direct payments from the Treasury were carried out in the period from 2015 to 2018, that is, during the management of three secretaries of the sector: Luis Videgaray, José Antonio Meade and José Antonio González Anaya.
In videgaray’s case, this new accusation is in addition to several investigations that are already weighing on him for alleged cases of corruption. The FGR is investigating him – and even accused him before a judge – of heading a criminal association that aimed to channel money from the construction company Odebrecht both for the financing of electoral campaigns, as well as for bribery to various legislators.
Last year the Attorney General’s Office already made a first attempt to obtain an arrest warrant against him, but the federal judge who reviewed the case considered that the investigation still needed to be supplemented before proceeding.
Read more: FGR investigates Tomás Zerón for espionage with Pegasus against security officials
Espionage from the security areas
Federal agencies related to security, intelligence and investigative functions have also channeled significant amounts of resources to companies linked to the spy network, according to data presented by the FIU.
In 2012, for example, the then Federal Public Security Secretariat transferred just over 26 million pesos to Comercializadora de Soluciones Integrales Mecale, during genaro García Luna’s tenure at the head of that agency.
García Luna is facing multiple investigations for possible organized crime, corruption, money laundering, illegal interception of communications, human rights violations, among others. He is currently imprisoned in the United States facing trial on drug trafficking charges, among others.
Between 2013 and 2018 the FIU also identified payments to these companies from the Federal Police and from the body responsible for the management of the sentencesthe federal ones. These are areas that during Peña Nieto’s six-year term were attached to the Interior Secretariat (Segob).
The official who was in charge of Segob when this happened is Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, the current PRI senator. Yesterday, in an interview with millennium, the legislator denied having had knowledge of the acquisition of the “Pegasus” malware, and said that the communications interventions were made by the then CISEN with other types of programs, and always with judicial authorization.
In addition to these cases, the PGR has already known about it, and which confirms that the initial payment for the acquisition of the aforementioned malware was $32 million. All this during the administration of former prosecutor Jesus Murillo Karam and the then head of the Criminal Investigation Agency, Tomas Zerón.
The FGR confirmed in a statement issued this week that Zeron is under investigation for the “Pegasus” case. The former official is currently at large, as there are two arrest warrants for possible torture and corruption.
However, the UIF revealed yesterday that payments to companies such as Tech Bull and Balam Private Security continued from the PGR even after the departure of Murillo Karam, during the rest of the six-year term. In other words, funding for the companies involved continued during the efforts of former prosecutors Arely Gomez, Raul Cervantes, and Alberto Elias Beltran.
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