MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s federal prosecutors are investigating former President Enrique Pena Nieto for the use of potentially illicit funds, the first known case against an ex-leader by an administration that pledged for years to crack down on graft at the highest levels of government.
Pena Nieto, who served from 2012 to 2018 for the now opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, received transfers to Spain from Mexico for 26 million pesos ($1.26 million) as recently as last year, triggering Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit to open its case, director Pablo Gomez said Thursday. A representative of the former president didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pena Nieto responded on his Twitter account, saying he would defend the legality of his finances to the authorities. “I express confidence in the institutions that prosecute and administer justice,” he wrote.
