Overview
- New York Judge Andrea Masley found Ricardo Salinas Pliego in contempt and ordered him to pay AT&T $20 million within two weeks or be confined at Rikers Island; he posted a $25 million bond before the deadline and has appealed.
- The previously undisclosed order also named Francisco Borrego, a senior legal adviser to Salinas, under the same contempt finding.
- AT&T’s 2020 lawsuit stems from its 2014 purchase of Salinas’s telecom business and alleges undisclosed, pre-sale tax liabilities; Salinas’s companies challenged the claims and lost.
- Parallel pressures persist in Mexico, where tax authority SAT asserts roughly 74 billion pesos in liabilities, and U.S. bondholders now seek about $565 million tied to TV Azteca, including a USMCA arbitration effort.
- The dispute spilled into politics as President Claudia Sheinbaum called the case a defraudación and urged payment, while Grupo Salinas rejected the characterization and said it will evaluate defamation actions in Mexico and the U.S.