Two Mexican businessmen were indicted in the United States for allegedly bribing Pemex officials as they sought to retain and obtain lucrative contracts with Mexico’s state oil company, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.
Ramón Alexandro Rovirosa Martínez, CEO of Roma Energy, and Mario Alberto Ávila Lizárraga, who contested the 2009 gubernatorial election in Campeche, are each charged with “one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and three substantive violations of the FCPA,” the Justice Department (DOJ) said in a statement.
The DOJ said that an indictment was unsealed on Monday in the Southern District of Texas charging the two men “for their roles in an alleged bribery scheme to retain and obtain business” related to Pemex and Pemex Exploración y Producción (PEP), a wholly owned exploration and production subsidiary of the state oil company.
Citing court documents, the DOJ said that Rovirosa Martínez, 46, a U.S. lawful resident of The Woodlands, Texas, and Ávila Lizárraga, 61, a U.S. lawful resident of Spring, Texas, and other unnamed people conspired to bribe Pemex officials.
The two men, “together with others, allegedly conspired to pay and offered to pay at least [US] $150,000 in bribes to officials at Pemex and PEP in order to obtain and retain business from Pemex and PEP for companies associated with Rovirosa,” the DOJ said.
“Between at least 2019 and continuing into at least 2021, Rovirosa, Ávila, and their co-conspirators allegedly offered to pay and paid bribes in the form of luxury goods, including from Louis Vuitton and Hublot, cash payments, and other valuable items, to at least three Pemex and PEP officials in exchange for those officials taking certain actions to help companies associated with Rovirosa obtain and retain business with Pemex and PEP,” the DOJ said.
1.🛢💰Los implicados son mexicanos y cuentan con residencia permanente en EEUU.
🔻Ramón Alexandro Rovirosa Martínez (46)
🔻Mario Alberto Ávila Lizárraga (61)
•Acusados de conspiración, soborno y presuntos vínculos con cárteles mexicanos. Ambos viven en Texas. pic.twitter.com/CAEQhZKvLS— Omar Cepeda Castro (@OmarCepedaCastr) August 12, 2025
“Those improper advantages helped companies associated with Rovirosa obtain contracts with Pemex and PEP worth at least $2.5 million. In addition, according to court documents, Rovirosa is alleged to have ties to Mexican cartel members,” the department said.
Matthew R. Galeotti, an acting U.S. assistant attorney general, said that Rovirosa and Ávila “are alleged to have bribed Mexican officials in order to rig the bidding process to secure millions of dollars of lucrative contracts and other advantages.”
“This indictment should send a clear message that the Criminal Division [of the DOJ] will not tolerate those who enrich corrupt officials for personal gain and to the detriment of the fair market,” he said.
The DOJ said that Rovirosa was arraigned on Monday, but Ávila “is a fugitive and remains at large.”
The former was reportedly arrested on Sunday and paid a $1 million bail to remain out of jail before he faces trial. He pleaded not guilty on Monday.
The DOJ said that if convicted, each defendant faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count they face.
“A federal judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors,” the DOJ said.
It noted that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating the case. The current evidence against Rovirosa and Ávila includes “a long list” of WhatsApp written and audio messages to Pemex officials, the newspaper Reforma reported.
The period during which the DOJ said that the alleged bribery of Pemex officials by Rovirosa and Ávila occurred coincides with the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a self-styled anti-corruption crusader.
Octavio Romero was CEO of Pemex — the world’s most indebted oil company — during the entirety of López Obrador’s six-year term between 2018 and 2024. He is now the head of the government housing fund Infonavit.
Corruption involving Pemex has long been a problem.
Emilio Lozoya, who served as Pemex CEO from 2012 to 2016 during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto, continues to await trial on corruption charges five years after he was extradited to Mexico from Spain.
Who is Ramón Alexandro Rovirosa Martínez?
According to U.S. court documents seen by the Milenio newspaper, Rovirosa is “the founder and CEO of Roma Energy, an Exploration and Production (E&P) company for the Oil and Gas Industry established in Texas.”
He is originally from Villahermosa, the capital of the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, according to media reports.
Rovirosa is reportedly the owner of various companies in Mexico, including one called Tubular Technology and another called Energy On Shore Services. Both those companies are based in Tabasco.
The news outlet Infobae reported that PEP awarded contracts worth over 82 million pesos (US $4.4 million) to companies associated with Rovirosa between 2018 and 2021. One of the contracts for which bribes were allegedly paid was awarded to Tubular Technology and Energy On Shore Services, according to the Milenio newspaper.
Milenio also reported that Rovirosa, a qualified lawyer, formerly served as the “legal operator” of Omar Vargas, a businessman who came under investigation for allegedly defrauding Pemex during the 2000-2006 presidency of Vicente Fox.
Who is Mario Alberto Ávila Lizárraga?
Ávila, originally from Campeche, contested the 2009 gubernatorial election in Campeche as the candidate for the National Action Party (PAN). He lost to Fernando Ortega Bernés of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, who was governor of Campeche until 2015.
Ávila, a business administration graduate who completed postgraduate studies in Spain, worked in both the public and private sectors in Mexico.
Between 2010 and 2012, he worked for Pemex as a deputy director of maintenance and logistics. In 2015, he was disqualified from holding public positions for 10 years after irregularities were detected in the awarding of Pemex contracts to the company Oceanografía. Ávila was also accused of using “official” airplanes for personal purposes while working at Pemex, according to Infobae.
Citing U.S. court documents to which it had access, Milenio reported that Ávila allegedly worked “for the benefit” of Rovirosa and his companies in recent years.
On Tuesday morning, President Claudia Sheinbaum said it was “worth talking about the fugitive businessman because he is a member of PAN,” currently the main opposition party in Mexico.
“He was a PAN candidate to the government of Campeche, he worked in Pemex and he was accused of corruption,” she noted.
“He’s currently a fugitive and is sought by the U.S. government,” Sheinbaum said.
With reports from Milenio, Reforma, Infobae and El Financiero
