Photo: Deposit Photos

By KELIN DILLON

In part of its quest to investigate alleged corruption and illegal enrichment by past Mexican government officials, the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (FGJ) has reportedly tracked one billion missing pesos that were purportedly embezzled under the administration of former Mexico City Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera.

The investigation has apparently revealed a network of shell companies used to move money around while Mancera was in office, as well as detailed the extraction of funds from public resources like the Housing Institute (Invi), the Secretariat of Mobility (Semovi), the Central de Abastos (Ceda) and the Commission for Housing Reconstruction, that was established after the 2017 earthquake, all of which allegedly ended up in tax havens.

Following details revealed by the inquiry, Mancera’s former Chief of Staff Julio César Serna was detained in his role in the purported embezzlement scheme on Saturday, Nov. 27, and currently sits in Mexico’s North Prison under preventative detention with a number of his national bank accounts frozen.

The FGJ will likely seek to recover these apparently misappropriated funds and recoup them into the Mexico City treasury, and is anticipated to potentially offer deals with lowered prison sentences in exchange for the reparation of the missing one billion pesos.