NUEVO LAREDO, TAMAULIPAS.- The main suspect in a financial fraud that hit over 6,000 small investors in Mexico was extradited by the United States to face charges in his home country Wednesday.
Mexican federal prosecutors said Rafael Olvera was handed over to Mexican authorities on a bridge linking Laredo, Texas with the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo.
Prosecutors said Olvera faces charges of handling illegally obtained funds and violating banking laws.
Olvera was the main shareholder in an investment fund management company known as Ficrea, which went bust in 2014.
The company’s fraudulent practices are estimated to have cost investors hundreds of millions of dollars in savings. Olvera allegedly diverted funds through a series of front companies for his own use.
Prosecutors noted that most of the defrauded investors were elderly people. Many of the victims have never recovered their money, and had demanded Olvera face charges.
He was arrested in the United States in 2019.
The case exposed Mexico’s weak financial supervision, given that there had been previous warnings about the investment fund’s methods
Sources: El Universal | El Financiero
