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The latest in a series of leaked telephone recordings involving toll operator OHL Mexico SAB is threatening to ensnare the country’s president.

A new recording released last week purports to show an OHL executive discussing a meeting he had with President Enrique Pena Nieto to complain about a company assigned to monitor traffic on one of its highways. The office of Pena Nieto, who hadn’t previously been a focus in the recordings, and OHL, declined to comment.

OHL accuses the monitoring company, Infraiber, of leaking the recordings -- audio clips that were captioned and uploaded to YouTube -- and filed a criminal complaint against the company last week. That claim was backed by a Pena Nieto cabinet minister, who told Reforma newspaper in a letter it published Sunday that the recordings were posted illegally by Infraiber. That minister is the one the recording purports to show was present during the meeting with Pena Nieto. Infraiber denied involvement in the recordings.

The events are the latest revelations in a scandal that has been unfolding since April largely via seven recordings uploaded to YouTube that purport to show OHL executives discussing ways to inflate toll rates, pay off judges and offer to cover a state official’s Christmas-week stay at a luxury Caribbean beach hotel.

Under Scrutiny

Pena Nieto is already under scrutiny after conflict-of-interest allegations arose last year involving the president, the first lady and Finance Minister Luis Videgaray, and government contractors building their homes. While all three were cleared by a government investigation, the public’s approval rating of how the president is dealing with corruption has fallen from a year ago.

Just hours before the latest recording was posted, a lawyer representing Infraiber was arrested for allegedly carrying an illegal weapon. He said the gun was planted by the police. Authorities raided Infraiber’s offices Friday after the complaint was filed, but haven’t said whether they charged anyone from the company.

“There seems to be a coordinated effort between the government and OHL to put an end to this scandal,” Gerardo Cevallos, an analyst at Vector Casa de Bolsa based in Mexico City, said Sept. 10. “That’s what appears to have happened this week -- this accusation by OHL, the arrest of the lawyer.”

This week brought another twist: Mexico’s attorney general’s office said Monday it was investigating the arrest, saying police probably filed false information in the case.

In its complaint, OHL Mexico accuses Infraiber of using the recordings as extortion. Since the recordings began appearing, OHL has claimed they are illegally posted and “maliciously edited.” It didn’t respond to requests for further comment on the latest developments.

In all of the sound clips, phone recordings play as allegations are made in captions on the screen. There’s no video footage of the executives.

Car Stop

In the recording released Sept. 7 and dated early April, a man identified in captions as an OHL executive refers to a meeting he supposedly had with Pena Nieto and Communications and Transportation Minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza. In the meeting they mention the independent traffic monitor, Tecnologia Aplicada Infraiber SA. Esparza’s press office declined to comment for this article, although it confirmed that the cabinet minister sent the letter to Reforma about Infraiber.



Paulo Diez, a lawyer for Infraiber, said in an interview that he was stopped in his car by federal authorities on Sept. 7 who sought his testimony on OHL’s case against phone tapping. He was asked to step out of the car and when his back was turned, an official pulled a weapon from his vehicle that Diez says was planted. He spent two nights in jail and posted bail on Wednesday, he said.

‘Clear Message’

“This was a clear message to intimidate me and to shut me

up,” Diez said by telephone from Mexico City. He added that Infraiber has

denied being behind the taped phone recordings.

Infraiber has filed several lawsuits against OHL and local authorities for allegedly assigning it and then removing it in 2013 from a toll road. The State of Mexico said in May that it canceled the service primarily because of the high cost of 50 centavos (3 cents) Infraiber charged per vehicle.

The State of Mexico highway authority continued to collect the 50-centavo charge even after it halted Infraiber operations in April 2013, according to a bond prospectus last year by an OHL unit, known as Conmex. The proceeds were deposited into a trust to be used as the highway authorities or a court decides, according to the prospectus.

Earlier recordings led to the resignation of a state official and an OHL

Mexico executive involved in one alleged hotel invitation, while two federal

officials named in other recordings denied such invitations took place in their cases.

Shares Plunge

Federal and state probes sparked by the recordings are ongoing, while an independent investigation commissioned by OHL found no wrongdoing.

The tollway operator brought in KPMG Cardenas Dosal, Jones Day Mexico, FTI Consulting Mexico, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. and Ritch, Mueller, Heather y Nicolau to conduct its reviews.



The incidents spurred Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings to put the company’s Spanish parent, Obrascon Huarte Lain SA, on review for a credit-rating downgrade.



OHL Mexico’s shares have plunged 35 percent since the recordings were publicized, after rising 12 percent at the start of the year. A temporary rally after the independent investigation found no wrongdoing on July 17 has been erased. OHL Mexico rose 6.3 percent to 21.31 pesos at close of trading Tuesday, while its majority shareholder boosted the portion of shares pledged to back a loan.

“Moving forward, the reputational damage caused by the videos could remain and a suspicion persist that the company acted incorrectly,” Vector’s Cevallos said. “Even if investigations exonerate OHL, doubts could still persist, and may keep some investors from buying its shares.”

— With assistance by Benjamin Bain