Mexican first lady's Florida home owned by potential government contractor

Mexican first lady's Florida home owned by potential government contractor

Guardian investigation reveals Angelica Rivera is using $2.05m luxury apartment bought by Grupo Pierdant, a contender to run Mexico’s ports

José Luis Montenegro in Mexico City and Julio C Roa in Florida

@jl_montenegroj

Tuesday 16 August 2016 13.29 EDT

Mexico’s first lady is using a luxury property in Florida bought by a company that is expected to bid for lucrative government contracts, the Guardian has learned.

Angelica Rivera, the wife of President Enrique Peña Nieto, is using the $2.05m apartment in Key Biscayne, south of Miami Beach, with the apparent blessing of Grupo Pierdant, which is a contender to run Mexico’s ports.

The company has also paid the property tax on an additional Key Biscayne apartment bought by a holding company set up by Rivera.

The arrangements echo aspects of Rivera’s purchase of a $7m mansion in Mexico City from another government contractor, the so-called Casa Blanca (White House) scandal.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/09/mexico-first-lady-florida-property-government-contractor-documents-reveal

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141552036

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Another scandal for Peña Nieto

The current president is simply not the leader Mexico needs, writes Jorge Ramos.

Publicado: ago 16, 2016 | 03:08 PM EDT

Once again, Enrique Peña Nieto and his family appear to be benefiting from his position as president of Mexico. Once again, a scandal has been sparked by reporters asking questions. And once again, the whole situation reeks of corruption.

José Luis Montenegro and Julio Roa, reporters at The Guardian, recently revealed that Peña Nieto’s family has been using an apartment worth about $2 million in Key Biscayne, Florida, which is owned by Ricardo Pierdant, a Mexican businessman. Pierdant’s apartment, Unit 404, is located directly above Unit 304, which is owned by Peña Nieto’s wife, Angelica Rivera. She bought her apartment in 2005. According to the reporters, both units are managed as one property and share the same phone number.

A recent follow-up report from Gerardo Reyes at Univision claimed that the apartments are connected by a private elevator. Reyes also explained that Pierdant and Peña Nieto go way back — they were schoolmates in college (if pressed, it’s doubtful that Peña Nieto can claim to have had no knowledge of this arrangement).

But that’s not all. Montenegro and Roa reported that Pierdant used a holding company to pay $29,703 in property taxes for Rivera’s apartment in 2013. One has to wonder: What did Pierdant expect in return for lending out his million-dollar property and paying Rivera’s taxes? We don’t know. However, the journalists have explained that Pierdant’s company, Grupo Pierdant, is expected to bid for a lucrative government contract to manage seaports in Mexico.

More:
http://www.univision.com/univision-news/opinion/another-scandal-for-pena-nieto