Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Log in to CasePortal
Search Articles
Free Litigation Reports Find Judicial Opinions

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

View Back issues
Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Spain Court Clears Extradition of Former Mexico Oil Chief

A Spanish court said on Monday it was allowing the extradition of a former chief executive of Mexican state oil company PEMEX accused of corruption to his home country.

/ July 6, 2020
FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2017 file photo, Emilio Lozoya, former head of Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex, gives a press conference in Mexico City. Lozoya, who was arrested in February 2020 by Spanish police on an international warrant issued by Mexico, has dropped his extradition fight and agreed to return to Mexico to cooperate in corruption investigations, according to Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero on Tuesday, June 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Gustavo Martinez Contreras, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2015 file photo, Emilio Lozoya, CEO of Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), attends a meeting in Paris, France. The former head of Mexico's state oil company was arrested Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020 in Spain on a international warrant issued by Mexico, authorities in both countries said. Mexico issued international arrest warrants against Lozoya in 2019 as a result of corruption investigations, including into his alleged ties to Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction company that secured contracts across Latin America through a network of bribes. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon, File)

MADRID, Spain (AFP) — A Spanish court said on Monday it was allowing the extradition of a former chief executive of Mexican state oil company PEMEX accused of corruption to his home country.

Emilio Lozoya, PEMEX chief from 2012 to 2018, is accused of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from scandal-tainted Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Lozoya was a top advisor to former president Enrique Pena Nieto (2012-18) and allegedly used the bribes to help fund Nieto’s presidential campaign bid.

He is also accused of having authorized the acquisition by PEMEX of a fertilizer factory in a poor state for $500 million, a price that prosecutors deem to have been suspiciously high.

The National Court in Madrid said all legal conditions were in place ot hand over Lozoya, who denies all the accusations but has accepted his extradition and promised to help clear up the cases.

Odebrecht, the largest construction firm in Latin America, has admitted to paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to win contracts in 12 countries, including Mexico.

The scandal has brought down ex-presidents and top officials in countries including Brazil, Peru and Colombia, but there have been no arrests or prosecutions so far in Mexico.

Lozoya allegedly took more than $10 million in bribes from Odebrecht starting in March 2012, when he was chief international strategist for then-candidate Nieto.

© Agence France-Presse

Categories / Criminal, International

Subscribe to our free newsletters

Our weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.

Loading...