Mexico Investigates Ex-President for USD25M Israeli Bribe Scandal
(MENAFN) Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero revealed on Tuesday that former President Enrique Peña Nieto is the subject of a formal investigation for allegedly accepting multimillion-dollar bribes from Israeli businessmen during his administration.
According to a report by an Israeli news outlet, Avishai Neriah and Uri Ansbacher are said to have paid Peña Nieto $25 million in exchange for securing cybersecurity contracts tied to NSO Group, the Israeli firm behind the controversial Pegasus spyware.
These hefty payments reportedly allowed Israeli cybersecurity companies to clinch lucrative government contracts and access sensitive internal information throughout Peña Nieto’s six-year presidency.
Pegasus and similar spyware tools have sparked global outrage due to their deployment against journalists and human rights activists in Mexico, fueling international condemnation.
At a press conference, Gertz Manero admitted that Mexico currently lacks solid evidence to back the allegations but confirmed that authorities will open an official probe into the purported bribery.
“Since the beginning of the previous administration, several complaints were filed that could not be corroborated with sufficient evidence. In this new case, however, there are now very specific reports indicating a connection with the companies that sold Pegasus -- including a response from the former president himself,” he said.
Diplomatic strains between Mexico and Israel have deepened partly because Mexico supports a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine and frequently criticizes Israeli actions toward Palestinians—a stance Israel has publicly rebuked.
Tensions worsened as Israel granted asylum to Tomas Zeron, a former head of Mexico’s Criminal Investigation Agency and a fugitive wanted for alleged evidence tampering and torture in connection with the 2014 disappearance of 43 students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers' College in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero.
Zeron has lived in Israel since 2019, despite Mexico’s extradition requests, as Israeli authorities have refused to detain or hand him over.
“Our relationship with these authorities has not been easy. We've had many problems that go back to what happened in Ayotzinapa, and there are cases that have been stalled for years,” Gertz Manero stated.
As the investigation into Peña Nieto unfolds, the ex-president has denied all accusations, branding them baseless and defamatory.
“I regret coming across reports that, without the slightest journalistic rigor, make careless and malicious claims. The report about alleged payments is completely false. It’s an insinuation entirely lacking in evidence," he wrote on X.
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