Raúl Salinas de Gortari
- For the mayor of Laredo, Texas, see Raul G. Salinas.
Raúl Salinas de Gortari (born August 24, 1946[1]) is a Mexican businessman who spent ten years in prison accused of the murder of his brother-in-law, José Francisco Ruiz Massieu, but was acquitted in 2005.[2] He is the brother of former President of Mexico Carlos Salinas.
Arrest and imprisonment
In February 1995, Raúl Salinas was arrested and charged with masterminding the murder of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, the deputy leader of the PRI ruling party. Salinas was the former brother-in-law of Ruiz Massieu, who had been married to Raúl's sister Adriana.[3] In January 1999, Salinas was found guilty and sentenced to 50 years in prison (later reduced to 27.5 years).[4] In June 2005, Salinas had his conviction overturned by a judicial panel and he was released from prison. [5]
Alleged money laundering
In November, 1995, Raúl Salinas's wife, Paulina Castañón and his brother-in-law, Antonio Castañón were arrested in Geneva, Switzerland after attempting to withdraw $84 million USD from an account owned by Raúl under an alias. Their capture led to the unveiling of a vast fortune spread around the world and summing to hundreds of millions of dollars even though he never officially received an annual income of more than $190,000. A report by the US General Accounting Office indicated that Raúl Salinas transferred over $90 million out of Mexico and into private bank accounts in London and Switzerland, through a complex set of transactions between 1992 and 1994, all with the help of Citibank and its affiliates.[6]
In 2008, the government of Switzerland turned over $74 million out of the $110 million in frozen bank accounts held by Raúl Salinas, to the government of Mexico. The Swiss Justice Ministry indicated that the Mexican government had demonstrated that $66 million of the funds had been misappropriated, and the funds, with interest, were returned to Mexico. The bank accounts were held at Pictet & Cie, Citibank Zurich, Julius Baer Bank, and Banque privée Edmond de Rothschild in Geneva and Zurich.[7][8][9]
Other funds were returned to third parties, including Mexican billionaire Carlos Peralta Quintero, who had given the funds to Raúl Salinas to set up an investment company. The Salinas family would not receive back any of the frozen funds.[2]
On December 6, 2004, Enrique Salinas de Gortari, the brother of Raúl Salinas de Gortari, was found dead in his car after apparently having been beaten and strangled. Prosecutors said that Enrique Salinas had been sought for questioning by French police regarding his financial transactions with Raúl Salinas. However, investigators indicated that they thought the killing was a botched extortion attempt on him.[10][11]
References
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- ↑ Salinas' Brother Charged in Mexican Assassination New York Times March 1, 1995[1]
- ↑ Raul Salinas Guilty in Killing And Is Sentenced to 50 Years New York Times January 22, 1999[2]
- ↑ Mexico Voids Conviction of Ex-President's Brother Los Angeles Times June 10, 2005[3]
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
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Oppenheimer, Andres. Bordering on Chaos. New York: Little, Brown, 1996. ISBN 0-316-65095-1
External links
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