Alleged money laundering
In November 1995, Raúl Salinas's wife,
Paulina Castañón, and his brother-in-law,
Antonio Castañón, were arrested in
Geneva, Switzerland after attempting to withdraw US$84 million from an account owned by Raúl under an alias. A report by the US
General Accounting Office indicated that Raúl Salinas transferred over $90 million out of Mexico and into private bank accounts in London and Switzerland, through a complex set of transactions between 1992 and 1994, all with the help of
Citibank and its affiliates.
[20]
Other funds were returned to third parties, including Mexican billionaire
Carlos Peralta Quintero, who had given the funds to Raúl Salinas to set up an investment company. The Salinas family would not receive back any of the frozen funds.
[21] However, in July 2013 a court exonerated Salinas of "unjust enrichment" and ordered that 224 million pesos (approximately $18 million) and 41 properties be returned to him. The court said that it could not explain how Salinas accumulated such wealth, but said that
"so long as it is not shown that the assets acquired by public employee Raul Salinas de Gortari are proceeds derived from an abuse of his position," that he cannot be convicted of "unjust enrichment."
[22]