Mexico City — The United States Treasury Department has ordered foreign-owned banks operating in Mexico to conduct a thorough investigation into the personal bank accounts and financial transactions of seven sitting state governors and their immediate families, according to reports from the political-financial investigative portal Código Magenta.
The sweeping financial probe aims to detect potential irregularities, use of shell companies, resource diversion, and money laundering. The governors under scrutiny are almost all members of the ruling Morena party:
- Clara Brugada (Mexico City)
- Rocío Nahle (Veracruz)
- Layda Sansores (Campeche)
- Salomón Jara (Oaxaca)
- Margarita González Saravia (Morelos)
- Esteban Villegas (Durango)
- Manolo Jiménez (Coahuila)
The directive invokes binational banking agreements and anti-money laundering regulations. Global banks with Mexican subsidiaries are required to comply with US Financial Intelligence Unit guidelines and the Bank Secrecy Act to avoid risking their operating licenses on Wall Street.
The order compels these institutions to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) detailing unusual transactions, structured deposits below regulatory thresholds, international transfers to tax havens, and the acquisition of properties or financial assets in the names of spouses, children, siblings, or alleged front men.
The investigation comes amid heightened diplomatic and security tensions between the White House and the Mexican government. Washington has shifted its enforcement strategy from exclusively targeting drug kingpins to pursuing elected political leaders suspected of providing institutional protection or facilitating illicit schemes.
This latest banking crackdown on a third of Mexico’s state governors adds to recent cases, including preventive freezing orders against accounts linked to former Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and ongoing inquiries into border state governors Alfonso Durazo (Sonora) and Américo Villarreal (Tamaulipas).
Neither the Mexican Ministry of Finance nor the implicated governors have issued an official response to the leak, but the measure increases political pressure on President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration ahead of binational security agreements.
