Mexico Probes Former President Peña Nieto Over Alleged Spyware Bribery Scandal

Mexico’s Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero has launched an investigation into claims that former President Enrique Peña Nieto accepted millions in bribes from Israeli businessmen to secure government contracts for spyware, including the controversial Pegasus surveillance software.

The probe follows a report by Israeli business outlet TheMarker, which alleged that Israeli entrepreneurs Uri Ansbacher and Avishai Neriah paid Peña Nieto up to $25 million in exchange for lucrative Mexican government contracts during his presidency from 2012 to 2018.

While Gertz Manero admitted that his office currently lacks concrete proof to support the allegations, he said documents cited in the report — part of an arbitration dispute between the two businessmen in Israeli courts — provide enough grounds to open a formal inquiry.

The arbitration filings reportedly include statements from the businessmen claiming their investment was rewarded with access to state contracts, including deals involving Pegasus, a powerful spyware tool made by Israel’s NSO Group. Although Peña Nieto is not named directly in the filings, references to “the elder man” and “the N” reportedly align with the years he held office.

Peña Nieto has denied the allegations, describing the claims as “completely false” and “malicious” in a statement posted on X. He also said he does not know either Ansbacher or Neriah.

The NSO Group has not responded to requests for comment. Mexico has previously struggled to obtain cooperation from Israeli authorities in probes linked to Pegasus abuses, Gertz Manero noted.

During Peña Nieto’s tenure, spyware use in Mexico came under intense scrutiny after researchers at Citizen Lab exposed multiple Pegasus-related attacks targeting journalists, scientists, and anti-corruption advocates. The Pegasus Project later revealed that up to 15,000 Mexican phone numbers were potentially targeted by NSO clients during that period.