he used to conceal the ownership of accounts containing $100million, and the role played by Citibank executives in setting up offshore companies and trusts.In his zeal to avoid political scandal. Raul Salinas de Gortari did everything possible forsix years to conceal ownership of bank accounts that eventually built up to the amount of $100million. Confronting Swiss Federal Attorney Carla del Ponte, the brother of the Mexicanex-President wove detailed tale of his financial acrobatics. In this odyssey he invented fictitiouspersons, placed complete trust in Citibank, whose ranking executives engineered some of hisfinancial operations; set up paper companies with Swiss bank accounts took over trust fundsinherited by his wife and had dealings with four Swiss banks.5REFORMA is in possession of a copy of the transcript of Salinas's interrogation by DelPonte and Valentin Rorschacher, head of the Swiss Central Office for Drug Trafficking, which wasconducted at Almoloya de Juarez Prison in December 1995 as part of the investigation of RaulSalinas de Gortari as an alleged participant in money laundering and drug trafficking operations.6 During the interrogation, Salinas detailed his Swiss accounts and the names under which they wereopened. According to his statement, his money was deposited in Banque Pictet, Citibank Zurich,Julius Baer Bank and Banque Edmond de Rothschild. The accounts were opened under thefictitious names of "Juan Guillermo Gomez Gutierrez" and "Juan Jose Gonzalez Cadena," as wellas a company, Novatone, and the Trocca Limited and Dozart trusts.7 Chapter IIRaul Talks about his mysterious millions of dollarsRaul gets interrogated by Swiss prosecutors.At the outset of the interrogation, Salinas expressed his admiration for the Europeancountry that was now investigating his financial operations. "It is a country that we have loved andrespected for many years. My wife studied in Switzerland, I have taken part in equestriancom...
