Name Raul de Role Businessman | Spouse Paulina Castanon | |
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Books Rural Reform in Mexico: The View from the Comarca Lagunera in 1993 Nephews Emiliano Salinas, Juan Cristobal Salinas, Patricio Salinas, Mateo Salinas Similar People Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Enrique Salinas, Raul Salinas Lozano, Emiliano Salinas | ||
Siblings Carlos Salinas de Gortari | ||
Ra l salinas de gortari es entrevistado por mar a elena de la cadena univisi n cuando sali de prisi n
Raúl Salinas de Gortari (born August 24, 1946) 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. He is the brother of former President of Mexico Carlos Salinas.
Contents
- Ra l salinas de gortari es entrevistado por mar a elena de la cadena univisi n cuando sali de prisi n
- Entrevista a ra l salinas de gortari parte 4
- Arrest and imprisonment
- Alleged money laundering
- References
Salinas de Gortari was included in a list of the "10 most corrupt Mexicans" published by Forbes in 2013.
Entrevista a ra l salinas de gortari parte 4
Arrest and imprisonment
In February 1995, Raúl Salinas was arrested and charged with masterminding the murder of José 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. In January 1999, Salinas was found guilty and sentenced to 50 years in prison (later reduced to 27.5 years). In June 2005, Salinas had his conviction overturned by a judicial panel and he was released from prison.
President Carlos Salinas appointed Deputy Attorney General Mario Ruiz Massieu, the brother of the assassinated man, to head the investigation of the murder. However, after a few months he resigned, claiming senior PRI officials were blocking the investigation. Later, Ruiz Massieu fled the country, but was arrested in Newark, New Jersey on money-laundering charges. He died in September 1999, apparently by suicide.
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.
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.
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. However, in July 2013 a court exonerated Salinas of "unjust enrichment" and ordered that 224 million pesos (approximately $18 million) and 41 properties be returned to him. The court said that it could not explain how Salinas accumulated such wealth, but said that "so long as it is not shown that the assets acquired by public employee Raul Salinas de Gortari are proceeds derived from an abuse of his position," that he cannot be convicted of "unjust enrichment."
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.