Fugitive’s Arrest Exposes Mexican Tax Network

Miami, Florida — Businessman Víctor Álvarez Puga, the husband of television host Inés Gómez Mont and a fugitive from Mexican justice for four years, was detained nearly a month ago at the Krome North SPC processing center in Miami, Florida. The apprehension, carried out by U.S. immigration authorities, is not directly related to the tax complaints he faces in Mexico. However, it has reignited interest in the corporate and financial networks he established alongside his brother, Alejandro Álvarez Puga, in various states across the country, including Quintana Roo.

Links to Financial Structures in the Mexican Caribbean

The Álvarez Puga brothers founded the firm Álvarez Puga y Asociados, which has a presence in more than 40 cities across the country and is dedicated to fiscal and accounting advisory services. However, they have been accused of alleged participation in a network of front companies that allegedly operated during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto to carry out tax evasion and irregular financial movements.

In Quintana Roo, they are linked to financial and communication groups headed by businessman Juan Melquiades Vergara Fernández, the former state Secretary of Finance, who was investigated in 2018 for alleged money laundering.

Corporate Network and Possible Ties to Local Firms

According to reports from news archives, the corporate structures linked to the Álvarez Puga brothers offered tax advisory, payroll management, and outsourcing services to local business owners and hoteliers since the mid-2000s. During that period, Quintana Roo experienced a boom in companies linked to subcontracting and resource management schemes, several of which would later be questioned by federal authorities.

Among the companies that allegedly formed part of this network, operated by or linked to Vergara Fernández, are:

• Plaza la Fiesta del Caribe
• Tradiciones del Caribe
• Rental Homes
• Marco Empresarial de Control Administrativo
• Global IDS
• Inmobiliaria Punta Maya
• Tesoros del Caribe
• Multimedios Turísticos
• Mundo Travel Channel
• Inmobiliaria Mundo Maya

This list includes, among others, 18 companies allegedly involved in issuing false invoices in Cancún and Playa del Carmen.

Ongoing Investigations in Mexico and the United States

Although Álvarez Puga's detention in the United States is due to immigration reasons, Mexican authorities maintain open investigations into his network of companies and their possible participation in irregular financial operations. The resolution of his legal status in the United States could open the door to a potential extradition, which would once again place the alleged ties between corporate structures in Quintana Roo and the national financial framework that operated during the previous administration under scrutiny.