On Thursday , the Mexico Attorney General’s Office (FGR) informed that police authorities in Germany had confirmed the arrest of Mrs. Gilda Margarita Austin , mother of Emilio Lozoya Austin , former CEO of PEMEX , for her alleged link to the investigation of the crimes committed in the Odebrecht case, for which they will request her extradition .
In a brief release, the FGR said that Gilda Margarita Austin had an arrest warrant against her issued by a District Judge Specialized in the Adversarial System of Criminal Justice, attached to the Federal Center for Criminal Justice in Mexico City , based in the Reclusorio Norte, and that she also had an Interpol red notice that was implemented by German authorities .
The FGR detailed that from the moment of this arrest there is a term of maximum 90 days to build the legal file that will stay, initially, in the jurisdiction of the Prosecutor’s Office in Munich .
“Within the term set by the International Cooperation in Crime Matters Act of Germany , the FGR will send to our embassy in that country, through the Secretary of Foreign Affairs (SRE) , the required documentation to achieve the extradition of Gilda “A.”
On July 23rd , elements of the Interpol in Germany arrested the mother of the former official, against whom rests an arrest warrant issued by a supervisory judge of Reclusorio Norte.
Gilda Margarita Austi
n was in the island of Juist , were she was in vacation with her grandsons, who live in the European country, and because she entered legally to Germany, the Mexican authorities are waiting for the Interpol to notify them formally of her arrest to start the process of extradition .
Her lawyer , Javier Coello Trejo , asserted in a phone interview to this editorial house that the moment he received the news of the arrest of the mother of Lozoya, he contacted the lawyers of the family in Germany and got together with Emilio Lozoya Thalmann , father of the former CEO of PEMEX, to define the legal strategy to follow in case Mrs. Austin asks to be brought to Mexico or follow the request of extradition in the European country.
Last May , the Finance Ministry informed that it had charged Emilio Lozoya Austin for acts of corruption . Earlier this month, arrest warrants against him , his mother , his wife , Marielle Eckes , and his siste r, Gilda Lozoya , were issued.
In the arrest warrant issued against the mother of Lozoya Austin, the FGR pointed her for receiving on November 22nd, 2012 a deposit from Tochos Holdings Limited for USD $155,000 in a bank account of BBVA Bancomer , of which her son is the only beneficiary.
Coello Trejo asserted that there is no illegal behavior in the fact that Emilio Lozoya had made a deposit to his mother, from his legal account in Germany , of USD $155,000 to pay the taxes for the purchase of a house in Ixtapa Zihuatanejo . “It was not for personal benefit, but that we will prove before the judge,” he said.
“The Interpol is complying to the request and the FGR is fulfilling its duty, that’s it. My disagreement with the way they are handling the affairs is another thing, but the lady never partnered with anyone to commit crimes,” he asserted.
EL UNIVERSAL
informed that the FGR pointed out Emilio Lozoya as the perpetrator of the offense of money laundering , stemming from bribe s he allegedly received from Odebrecht . His sister, his wife, his mother and Aguilera Concha were pointed out as participants in money laundering, and the five are pointed out as coauthors of criminal association .
In addition, Emilio Lozoya is accused of bribery in the same case. The probe into Lozoya, who served as Pemex’s CEO from 2012 to 2016 , focuses on money transfers made by the steel company Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA) to a shell company allegedly set up by Brazilian construction company Odebrecht to pay bribes in exchange for lucrative contracts ; the shell company allegedly sent the funds to Lozoya and his family .
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