Mexican Lawyer Normal Alejandro Gertz Manero introduced Tuesday that he has launched a probe into allegations that former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto took bribes from Israeli businessmen who allegedly paid him as a lot as $25 million to safe authorities contracts for spy ware and different know-how.
The investigation is available in response to an account within the Israeli enterprise publication TheMarker, which reported that the contracts included a deal to purchase Pegasus — the highly effective spy ware manufactured by Israel-based NSO Group.
Gertz Manero acknowledged in a press briefing that he at the moment lacks concrete proof to show TheMarker’s claims about Peña Nieto are true, however prompt that the names and paperwork cited within the information outlet’s report give his workplace a roadmap for a probe.
TheMarker’s report is predicated on paperwork filed as a part of a authorized dispute between the businessmen — Uri Ansbacher and Avishai Neriah — who reportedly entered into arbitration in Israeli courts to find out particular person proceeds from a joint $25 million “funding” in Peña Nieto.
The arbitration paperwork allegedly embrace statements from the businessmen claiming that in trade for his or her cash, Peña Nietro delivered their “joint enterprise” the profitable safety contracts from the Mexican authorities, together with for using Pegasus.
Gertz Manero mentioned that as a part of the investigation his workplace has sought the paperwork which allegedly embrace Neriah and Ansbacher’s account of the alleged bribes.
The Israeli authorities has traditionally been uncooperative with Mexican authorities investigating Pegasus abuses, Gertz Manero mentioned, indicating that his workplace has requested worldwide authorized help to be able to entry the paperwork TheMarker report attracts from.
The paperwork reportedly don’t identify Peña Nieto however as an alternative cite his years in workplace and seek advice from an official described as “the elder man” and “the N.”
Peña Nieto denied the allegations in an X post Sunday, saying TheMarker’s account is “utterly false.”
“I remorse to come back throughout articles that, missing the minimal journalistic rigor, make rash and malicious claims,” he wrote. “It’s an insinuation devoid of any foundation.”
Peña Nieto additionally has reportedly mentioned in media interviews that he doesn’t know Ansbacher or Neriah. TheMarker is owned by the Haaretz Group, which publishes Israel’s newspaper of document.
Peña Nieto, who served as Mexico’s president from 2012 to 2018, has beforehand been investigated for different acts of alleged corruption, together with incidents involving bribes, however he has by no means been formally charged.
Throughout Peña Nieto’s presidency, digital forensic researchers on the Citizen Lab documented dozens of examples of using Pegasus to focus on telephones belonging to journalists, authorities scientists, politicians and anti-corruption activists.
In 2021, a global media consortium reporting on NSO abuses — an effort often known as the Pegasus Project — revealed that in Peña Nieto’s presidency some 15,000 Mexican telephone numbers have been probably monitored with Pegasus.
The findings have been based mostly on a leaked listing of greater than 50,000 telephone numbers obtained by Amnesty Worldwide and a Paris-based nonprofit media group that are believed to belong to folks NSO purchasers expressed curiosity in focusing on, starting in 2016.
A spokesperson for the NSO Group didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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