A federal court has denied an appeal by a former electricity commission executive of an eight-year prison sentence.

Néstor Moreno Díaz, former director of operations at the Federal Electricity Commission, was handed the prison sentence in March 2017 when he was found guilty of illicit enrichment.

An investigation by the Attorney General’s Office was triggered by a United States investigation that found that Moreno had used a line of credit at a U.S. bank to purchase a $1.8-million yacht and a Ferrari Spider and enroll his son in a private military academy in Wisconsin.

Moreno accepted tens of millions of pesos in bribes from United States-based firm Lindsey Manufacturing in exchange for contracts.

A key part of the investigation was the discovery of an unaccounted-for 36 million pesos (US $1.9 million) in assets obtained by the former executive over the course of nine years, including 7.7 million pesos in bank deposits, a piece of land in Ensenada, Baja California, and several luxury vehicles.

During the same period, Moreno Díaz officially earned just 21 million pesos ($1.9 million).

Yesterday, a panel of federal judges unanimously voted to confirm Moreno’s prison sentence and fine of 31,315 pesos.

A 2017 ruling prevents the former executive from holding office for a period of eight years and any of his assets whose source cannot be verified were to be seized by authorities.

According to the newspaper Reforma, sources close to Moreno said he is expected to appeal the court’s decision again.

Reforma also reported it is one of the few cases that the Attorney General’s Office has won.

Source: Reforma (sp)