DISASTER: TURI'S "MEXICANO CHUECO" CHOICE FOR MR. AMIGO

(Ed.'s Note: Once again, the behind-the-scene machinations of Mr. Amigo Association member Arturo "Turi" Treviño to hand-pick the Mr. Amigo representative – this time for 2024 – has resulted in disaster. Treviño, according to some MAA members, rammed his selection through the MAA board and named actor Eduardo Verástegui, who tried to file as a presidential candidate to Mexico against the ruling MORENA party. Last time he convinced a majority to pick Arturo Elias Ayub, the son-in-law of Carlos Slim Helu, Mexico's richest man, which, unfortunately, nobody in Brownsville knew.  After that he had the Mr. Amigo ceremonies separate from Charro Days which resulted in a disaster.

Now we learn that Verástegui was investigated and has been fined for illegally receiving and concealing the fact that he got money from his companies in the United States to fund his collection of signature necessary to get on the ballot. He came up short and will not be a candidate, according to the Mexican  federal elections commission which investigated the illegal transfers to interfere in the Mexican elections and continues the probe. Treviño boasted that the MAA did not need Charro Days and Sombrero Fest after MAA had "screwed" the city out of  $75,000 from its Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) for their activities A commenter corrected us. That is not Turi during the Mr. Amigo announcement in the photo above. Thanks.)

By TeleDiario

The former candidate for an independent presidential candidacy, Eduardo Verástegui, was investigated and fined by the National Electoral Institute (INE), the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) and the Tax Administration Service (SAT).

This is because he had allegedly received illicit contributions from abroad (USA), which would amount to 6.9 million pesos ($390,00 US). Added to this is that he will have to pay $144,000 pesos for unreported expenses during his collection of signatures throughout the country.

The fines against Verástegui came after the General Council of INE ended the inspection process of the 60 people who aspired to the federal election through independent means for the presidency, senators and deputations. Apart from that of the actor, the body applied fines of $376,000 pesos for different irregularities.

Of the total amount of fines imposed by the INE, the third part belongs to Verástegui, since it was concluded that he participated in concealment of the money he handled during his collection of signatures, trying to obtain citizen support to appear on the ballot, in which finally he did  not succeed.

Specifically, the Electoral Contentious Technical Unit detected the omission to report expenses on bracelets, in addition to not verifying some contracts, not presenting advertising contracts on the internet for $394,000 pesos and failing to present four bank reconciliations to the account used to obtain citizen support.

Additionally, the actor left eight events with a status of “to be carried out,” so it is not known if they were carried out or, consequently, whether or not whether there were expenses. All this added up to the fact that he had eight late Notices for $1.6 million pesos and five more late Notices for $1.9 million pesos.

After the fine was accepted by unanimous vote, the councilors rejected the INE Supervision Unit recommendations that it investigate and fine the actor for maneuvering transfers from abroad, since it is illegal.

Counselor Martín Faz showed that a transfer of $390,000 (US), equivalent to $ 6.9 million pesos, “entered the country to promote the obtaining of signatures of support from citizens,” but which Verástegui tried to hide by presenting to the INE false information, which is prohibited.

As investigated by the INE, Verástegui indicated that the money sent from abroad were his own resources and showed that the resources that were sent during November and December 2023 came from a bank account opened in his name.

“However, the rest of the financial information was concealed in such a way that it was not possible to observe the average balance and the final balance or the manner of movements. And to justify these movements, the candidate argued security reasons.”

Despite this, a detailed inspection was carried out on the account statements, where it was found that the actor left the data intact in the digital file, so it was possible to distinguish the information that he had concealed and it was clear that it is of transfers from a US company.

“In October the same company transferred $45,000(US) and that same day it transferred $340,000 to fund its civil association in Mexico. In neither case did the applicant have the resources to fund his collection of signatures ad the investigation shows that he would have had to generate more than one year of his income, a situation that generates suspicions about the true origin of the resources provided." 

The INE also approved not only the initial fine for unreported expenses, but also recommended that an informal procedure be opened to track improper transfers from abroad and give advice to the SAT and the FIU to investigate the transfer of the $6.9 million pesos to the Verástegui's account.