The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) initiated an investigation folder for possible acts of corruption and crimes that are related to the contracts that Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has assigned to the baker hughes company in the current six-year term, as well as the lease of a house owned by one of its former directors, which was occupied by José Ramón López Beltrán, son of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Federal authorities confirmed to Political Animal the opening of this investigation folder based on the complaints that the Federal Public Ministry has received, after this case was announced at the end of last January in various reports. Among these complaints is the one presented by the National Action Party on February 3.
The case has been turned over to the Prosecutor’s Office Specialized in Combating Corruption of the FGR, which is preparing the investigation plan that will be carried out in this case and defining the information that will be requested from various entities, among other aspects.
The opening of the investigation, stressed the authorities consulted, is an obligation of the Public Ministry in the face of the facts that have been denounced, but that does not prejudge that they have been committed. In the event that elements were found that could prove a crime, the corresponding accusations would be presented before a judge, and if this were not the case, the investigation would be closed.
In the complaint that the national leadership of the PAN presented, the prosecutor’s office was asked to investigate whether there is a possible conflict of interest or influence peddling after it was announced in a report that López Obrador’s son lived in Houston, Texas, where he has occupied two properties, including, a property owned by Keith Schilling, a former senior executive at Baker Hughes, a Pemex contractor.
We filed a complaint with the @FGRMexico for the alleged acts of corruption and influence peddling of @lopezobrador_’s son.
As the only party that has denounced, we once again demand from the president a clear and timely response on the #MansiónDelBienestar. pic.twitter.com/tGD92KURBE
— Marko Cortés (@MarkoCortes) February 3, 2022
In 2019 and 2020, the period in which this property was occupied, Baker Hughes received 194 million dollars, about 3,900 million pesos, from Petróleos Mexicanos. This information was corroborated by Pemex’s own director, Octavio Romero. The resources corresponded, according to the official, to contracts resulting from bidding and to extensions of services.
After the journalistic publications, both López Beltrán and his wife, Carolyn Adams, have already set positions in which they point out that the house they occupied, belonging to the former director Keith Schilling, was rented following all the formalities and procedures for it. They have also rejected that there was any irregularity or favor especially behind this procedure.
My current employment situation: https://t.co/s7oLSmee5P
— José Ramón López Beltrán (@_30JR40_) February 14, 2022
López Beltrán also said that his income and residence in the United States comes from the work he does for a company called KEI Partners, a company registered in Houston in 2019 and whose partners are Karla Wiedemann, Erika Chávez Cambero and Iván Chávez Saúl.
However, this statement has led to new questions since Iván Chávez Saúl is vice president of Grupo Vidanta, a company whose founder is Daniel Chavez Morán, an advisor to President López Obrador, and who participates in an “honorary” way in the supervision of the work of the Mayan Train. In the prosecutor’s office, the authorities consulted indicated that all these facts will also be reviewed.
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