Former Mexican politician pleads guilty to money laundering in Texas
Karly Williams, 28 March 2021
In a high-profile case that dragged on for years as he avoided arrest by both U.S. and Mexican authorities, the former governor of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas has pled guilty to one count of money laundering.
More of the unregistered stock offerings were said to be managed by Morgan Stanley, according to people familiar with the matter, on behalf of one or more undisclosed shareholders. Some of the trades exceeded $1 billion in individual companies, calculations based on Bloomberg data show.
Tomás Yarrington Ruvalcaba entered a guilty plea in court Thursday, eight years after he was hit with a 53-page indictment, as reported by Jason Buch of the San Antonio Express-News.
The U.S. government accused Yarrington of taking bribes from the Zetas drug cartel while he was in office, actively taking part in their drug trafficking operations and laundering bribe money in the United States.
In the end, Yarrington admitted to using Texas real estate transactions, including investing in property in San Antonio, to launder millions in bribes he received from individuals and companies who wanted to do business with Tamaulipas. But he did not admit to taking bribes from drug traffickers.
Among the property prosecutors alleged Yarrington purchased in the San Antonio area was a 46-acre tract on La Cantera Parkway.
