Enrique Peña Nieto Family: Mexico President Under Scrutiny for Relationship With Multi-Million Resort Company
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is once again facing damning questions about his personal assets.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a few weeks after assuming the office of governor of the State of Mexico in late 2005, Peña Nieto purchased a property in an exclusive golf club from Roberto San Román Widerkehr, a businessman who helped transform a sleepy town into a popular resort famous for its Roman-style thermal baths.
Widerkehr, the brains behind the resort-styled renovation, further founded a local construction firm which went on to win over $100 million in public-works contracts during Peña Nieto’s time as governor from 2005 to 2011.
“Since Mr. Peña Nieto became president in 2012, Mr. San Román’s firm has won at least 11 federal contracts, government records show, becoming a national player with business in several states," WSJ explains. "Before Mr. Peña Nieto came to power, the company had never won a contract directly from the federal government.”
This is the third time in recent months that Peña Nieto, his family members or his associates have come under financial scrutiny for real estate linked to companies doing business with the government.
In November, The Associated Press reported an investigation revealed Angelica Rivera, Peña Nieto's wife and an former actress, had acquired a luxury mansion in Mexico City from a subsidiary of Grupo Higa, a subsidiary of the company part of a consortium that won a $3.7 billion contract that month to build a high-speed rail line.
In addition, a subsidiary of Grupo Higa, which also won contracts during Peña Nieto's time as governor, later sold a home to Treasury Secretary Luis Videgaray.
All of this scrutiny comes at time when Peña Nieto is under fire for his alleged mishandling of the 43 missing student teachers from Guerrero.
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