Mexican mayor accused of faking kidnapping to embezzle $2 million

Nancy Napoles, the municipal president of Tenancingo, Mexico, stands accused of orchestrating her own kidnapping to embezzle approximately $2 million in government funds. Local authorities revealed on Thursday that the scheme allegedly involved faking her abduction to create a justification for the misappropriation of public money.

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The accusations are politicized.

Prosecutors have requested Napoles, a member of President Claudia Sheinbaum's ruling Morena party, to testify on July 9 regarding the "simulation of a kidnapping." While no arrest warrants have been issued for her, her husband and brother-in-law are reportedly on the run. The case is built upon the testimony of three individuals arrested as alleged "kidnappers," who claimed they forced Napoles out of her car at gunpoint.

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40 million pesos in exchange for her freedom.

According to the prosecutor's office, the alleged captors threatened Napoles and her family with death if a ransom of 40 million pesos (equivalent to $2.3 million) was not paid. They reportedly advised her to secure the funds by "taking resources from the local government." However, an unsuspecting witness who observed the staged abduction alerted the police, disrupting the plan and forcing Napoles to abandon the alleged mission.

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She would need to take resources from the local government.

An investigation uncovered inconsistencies in Napoles' account, leading authorities to suspect that her husband and brother-in-law devised the "false kidnapping" to cover up funds that had "already been embezzled." Napoles has vehemently denied the accusations, proclaiming her innocence in a social media video and asserting that the charges are "politicized." She has expressed her willingness to cooperate with authorities to clarify the events and ensure that "the guilty actors are punished."

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The guilty actors are punished.