• PROBE: Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) is probing the wealth of one of the country’s Electoral Tribunal magistrates on suspicion of irregular financial transactions well beyond its reported official income, according to Government’s reports seen by Grupo REFORMA.
• SUSPICION: Having started his term on November 2016, magistrate José Luis Vargas, cannot earn beyond its annual gross salary of USD 233,000 but the UIF is probing irregular transactions including alleged irregular deposits from state governments and large credit card movements.
• THE LAW: “Magistrates…may not, in any case, accept or have any employment or perform any commission for the Federal Government, States or individuals, except for unpaid positions in scientific, educational, literary or charitable associations”, Mexican Constitution’s Article 101 says.
• MONEY: According to the UIF reports, authorities are probing a USD 26,000 deposit to magistrate Vargas accounts from the Sonora state government and credit card movements worth USD 738,000 in only 2 years; magistrate Vargas has been at the center of several key decisions.
