Mexico’s Cruz Azul soccer team top directors investigated for money laundering

Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) froze the bank accounts of the Cruz Azul soccer club president Guillermo Álvarez and those of executives Alfredo Álvarez and Víctor Garcés .

The UIF accused the three of them of alleged money laundering and organized crime .

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The UIF’s investigation suggests the three Cruz Azul top directors designed a scheme to divert resources from the Cruz Azul Cooperative to personal bank accounts abroad, according to Denisse Maerker and Ciro Gómez Leyva .

The transfers would be of over MXN $1.2 billion and would have taken place between 2013 and 2020 . The accounts to which the resources were diverted are located in Spain , the U.S. , and other countries.

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In the early morning of Friday, it was revealed that Billy Álvarez had a writ of amparo against any arrest warrant against him issued by Mexican authorities.

According to several sources, Mexico City's judge Julio Veredín Sena Velázquez temporarily suspended any arrest warrant against the Cruz Azul’s president.

Federal sources confirmed the UIF ordered on Friday to release some of the frozen accounts exclusively for the Cruz Azul Cooperative payroll payment .

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