A former top official in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, whose case became a symbol of Mexican government corruption, has pleaded guilty in Texas to federal money laundering charges, according to court documents.
Hector Javier Villarreal Hernandez was charged in Mexico with using his position as Coahuila's Secretary of Finance to take out nearly a quarter billion dollars in fraudulent loans between 2008 and 2011, using the credit of the state as collateral.
Villarreal was appointed to the position by Coahuila's then governor, who, for a time, headed the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The former governor has not been implicated in the case.
After his resignation and arrest by Mexican authorities in 2012, Villarreal skipped bond.
He was indicted in the United States on charges that he laundered his ill-gotten millions in banks in South Texas and in Bermuda, and by buying property in San Antonio, the Rio Grande Valley, and South Padre Island, according to U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson.
Villarreal surrendered to U.S. authorities in the international bridge between El Paso and Juarez in February of this year.
In an email to Reuters, Michael Wynne, Villarreal's Houston-based attorney, declined to comment on Wednesday's court proceedings in San Antonio. Federal prosecutors did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Villarreal is still facing charges in Mexico.
