AG Proposes 39-Year Sentence for Former Pemex Head Lozoya
Former Pemex Director Emilio Lozoya. Photo: Google
By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF
A full 17 months after his extradition to Mexico from Spain, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR) asked a federal judge to sentence former Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) Director Emilio Lozoya to 39 years in prison for allegedly taking bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
In a letter delivered to Judge Artemio Zúñiga Mendoza of the Federal Criminal Justice Center of the North Prison, who is overseeing Lozoya’s case, the Prosecutor’s Office presented its first set of charges against Lozoya, asking Zúñiga Mendoza to impose 15 years in prison for the crime of money laundering, 14 years for bribery and another 10 for criminal association, to be served consecutively.
Three senior Odebrecht officials testified to the FGR that Lozoya received bribes of $6 million in exchange for Pemex assigning contracts to the Brazilian company at the Tula, Hidalgo, refinery.
The Prosecutor’s Office also asked that Lozoya be required to pay the equivalent of 5,450 days of minimum wage salary in fines, the maximum amount contemplated in the three crimes.
At the same time, he called for the seizure of Lozoya’s condominium in Ixtapa, Zihuatanejo, acquired by Lozoya’s wife, Marielle Helene Eckes, in 2013 for $1.9 million.
The FGR also requested that Lozoya repay financial damages that in past hearings were declared to be $7.385 million.
Lozoya is accused of having received bribes of $6 million from Odebrecht and laundering $1.385 million through the financial system.
In coming days, the FGR is expected to present additional charges against Lozoya for the Agronitrogenados case, a criminal case in which he allegedly received a bribe of $3.4 million for Pemex to buy the plant at a premium from Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA).
After a long period of house arrest, Lozoya has been imprisoned in the North Prison since Nov. 3 because Judge Zúñiga Mendoza decided that he has sufficient family networks and economic resources to represent a possible flight risk.