[NYTr] Mexico Congress to probe ex-president Fox's wealth

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Milt Shapiro (mexnews)


Reuters - Sep 24, 2007

Mexico Congress to probe ex-president Fox's wealth

Mexico's lower house of Congress said on Monday it would open a probe 
into the finances of former president Vicente Fox after a magazine 
spread on his swanky country home sparked questions about his new 
wealth.

A congressional commission will investigate where Fox got the money 
to transform his modest ranch into a luxury property adorned with a 
lake and swimming pool, as shown in the glossy magazine Quien earlier 
this month.

Fox, a conservative whose term ended in December 2006, worked as a 
Coca-Cola Co executive before being elected president in 2000, ending 
71 years of one-party rule.

Fox's election was hailed as the start of Mexico's transition to a 
true democracy and many hoped it would mark the end of widespread 
corruption under the all-controlling Institutional Revolutionary 
Party or PRI.

While Fox has never been linked to financial scandals, his second 
wife, Martha Sahagun, has been accused of siphoning off money from a 
social fund she headed as first lady and channeling government 
contracts to her sons.

Sahagun, also chastised in the Mexican media for her love of 
expensive designer clothes, denies any wrongdoing and the accusations 
were never proven in court.

The photos of Fox's San Cristobal ranch in the central state of 
Guanajuato showed a beautifully furnished mansion, a stylish swimming 
pool, a lake and immaculately kept grounds with deer and peacocks.

Photos of the same ranch taken in 1999 show a smaller, more austere 
house with simple furniture and no swimming pool.

Fox has denied any wrongdoing, saying in a statement that the "Centro 
Fox" think tank he is building near his Guanajuato estate is financed 
with private donations.

Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited