WhiteWater Midstream, the company accused of corruption that signed contracts with CFE

During 2016 and 2017, the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) signed contracts with gas trader WhiteWater Midstream, a company that is currently under investigation in Mexico and the United States for having signed contracts under suspicion of corruption. An investigation by the newspaper El País revealed the relationship between Guillermo Turrent, then director of the subsidiary CFE Internacional, with executives of the U.S. gas trading company.

According to the Spanish newspaper, WhiteWater Midstream began in those years to win contracts for millions of dollars with the CFE, even when the trading company had just been created. An informative note published by the CFE last July reiterated that the U.S. company is under investigation in both countries for alleged corruption such as breach of trust and influence peddling.

"Between 2016 and 2017, CFE entered into various contracts with the company WhiteWater Midstream and its subsidiaries named WWM Logistics, LLC and Waha Connector. WhiteWater Midstream, the such company, is under an investigation process, both in Mexico and in the United States, for delivery of contracts under suspicion of corruption, breach of trust, and influence peddling, given that it is a recently created company, which did not have assets, experience in the sector or financial solvency and, to whom multi-million dollar contracts were delivered by CFE," states the CFE letter published on July 17, 2021, and signed by Luis Bravo Navarro, CFE's Corporate Communication Coordinator.

An example of the contracts signed, says CFE, is one that was unnecessary for CFE's purposes and needs. It warns that such a contract was assigned without a transparent and competitive bidding process that guaranteed the best conditions for the Commission and the Mexican State. In addition, such contract, of which the amount is not specified but it is assured that it is for billions of dollars and more than 20 years, was not approved by the governing bodies of the CFE, nor did it have the approval of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP).

The current CFE administration also accuses that CFE International signed two natural gas supply contracts with WhiteWater Midstream that are unfavorable for the Mexican state-owned company since they include clauses and conditions such as that CFE cannot terminate under any circumstances any gas contract for 15 years; it cannot penalize the private company under situations of non-compliance in the supply; the amounts of CFE's guarantees to the company are out of the market and the volumes of gas are increasing and not linked to the needs of CFE's generation plants.

"CFE will exercise in accordance with its own right, legal actions, both civil and criminal, in Mexico and the United States."

Luis Bravo Navarro assures that CFE approached, in the current administration, the U.S. company to try to renegotiate such contracts and thereby modify the contractual conditions, however, executives linked to senior CFE officials in the past six-year term, refused to modify what was established and reach a new agreement.

"The CFE will seek to identify and adjudicate the responsibilities of former CFE officials who delivered these contracts, as well as to hold their accomplices responsible in such a non-existent company. There are former CFE officials who are being investigated", assures the CFE.

Source: Once Digital