Cracks in Mexico’s top graft cases exposed

A MEXICAN court ruling allowing an ex-union boss to walk free of money laundering charges laid bare a serious flaw in a host of other high-profile corruption trials, officials and experts say, and underscored the challenge facing the incoming government.

Last week, former teachers’ union leader Elba Esther Gordillo evaded prison when a judge dismissed charges that she had laundered more than $100 million (R1.47 billion) in union funds to pay for luxury goods and plastic surgery.

Judge Miguel Angel Aguilar of Mexico City’s first penal tribunal justified his decision, in part, using a November Supreme Court ruling that stated prosecutors must first obtain court orders before requesting financial records.

The same argument could be brought to bear in other prominent investigations, such as those into ex-state governors accused of embezzling public funds, a half-dozen government sources and legal experts said.

Mexico is awash with billions of dollars in illicit proceeds from drug trafficking, organised crime and theft of public money, but despite efforts to improve anti-money laundering laws, the country is failing to mount successful prosecutions.

Financial information has been obtained without court orders in thousands of cases under way or already resolved, said Jorge Lara, a former deputy attorney-general.

Since Mexican law allowed for jurisprudence that is favourable to defendants to be applied retroactively, many of those cases could be thrown out, he said.

“This is a really potent tool to topple cases,” Lara said. – Reuters