A Mexican mayor allegedly faked her own kidnapping to embezzle US$2 million (S$2.6 million) worth of government funds disguised as ransom, local authorities said on June 18.

Nancy Napoles, the municipal president of Tenancingo, several hours outside Mexico City, has proclaimed her innocence, calling the accusations “politicised”.

Napoles belongs to the ruling Morena party of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has made combating corruption one of the pillars of her administration.

Prosecutors said they requested Napoles give testimony on July 9 for the “simulation of a kidnapping”. There are no arrest warrants against her, unlike her husband and brother-in-law, who are on the run.

Armed men forced Napoles out of her car at gunpoint, according to the prosecutor’s office, basing the case on the testimony of three now-arrested “kidnappers”.

The authorities suggested that during her captivity her captors threatened to kill Napoles and her family if they didn’t pay “40 million pesos (S$3 million) in exchange for her freedom”, advising her that if they couldn’t pay the ransom she would need “to take resources from the local government”.

But an unsuspecting witness who saw the mayor being forced into a car upended the plan when he tipped off the police, who started a search and forced the mayor to abandon the mission.

A subsequent investigation revealed inconsistencies in her story, suggesting that the mayor’s husband and brother-in-law planned the “false kidnapping” to claim public money that “was already embezzled, creating a justification for the money”.

Napoles denied the accusation and said she was willing to cooperate with the authorities to clarify what happened so “the guilty actors are punished”. AFP

Mexican mayor accused of faking her kidnapping in $2.6m embezzlement scheme