Mexico arrests businessman over alleged use of Israeli Pegasus spyware
MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Mexican prosecutors said Monday they have arrested a businessman on charges he used the Pegasus spyware to spy on a journalist.
The software marketed by the Israeli spyware firm NSO Group
has been implicated in government surveillance of opponents and journalists
around the world.
Mexico had the largest list — about 15,000 phone numbers —
among more than 50,000 reportedly selected by NSO clients for potential
surveillance.
Federal prosecutors announced the arrest on Monday, but did
not name the suspect under rules aimed at protecting presumption of innocence.
A federal official not authorized to be quoted by name said
the suspect is Juan Carlos García Rivera, who has been linked to the company
Proyectos y Diseños VME and Grupo KBH. He was detained on November 1.
In July, Mexico’s top security official said two previous
administrations spent $61 million to buy Pegasus spyware. The two companies the
suspect was linked to were allegedly parties to some of the contracts.
Leopoldo Maldonado, of the press freedom group Article 19,
said the detention was the first arrest in Mexico linked to the Pegasus spyware
scandal.
García Rivera is “a technical employee of a private company
that was an intermediary for NSO in Mexico, and benefitted from illegal spying
on public figures,” Maldonado said, adding “but that does not represent the end
of those responsible.”
Public Safety Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez said in July
that records had been found of 31 contracts signed during the administrations
of President Felipe Calderón in 2006-2012 and President Enrique Peña Nieto in
2012-2018. Some contracts may have been disguised as purchases of other
equipment.
The government said many of the contracts with NSO Group
were signed with front companies, which are often used in Mexico to facilitate
kickbacks or avoid taxes.
Last week, the government’s top anti-money laundering
investigator said officials from the two previous administrations had spent
about $300 million in government money to purchase spyware. But that figure may
reflect all spyware and surveillance purchases, or may include yet-unidentified
contracts.
Santiago Nieto, the head of Mexico’s Financial Intelligence
Unit, said the bills for programs like the Pegasus spyware appear to have
included excess payments that may have been channeled back to government
officials as kickbacks.
Nieto said the amounts paid, and the way they were paid,
suggested government corruption in an already questionable telephone tapping
program that targeted journalists, activists and opposition figures, who at the
time included now President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his inner circle.
López Obrador took office on December 1, 2018, and vowed
never to use spyware. Nieto said no transactions had been detected in the
current administration.
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