Javier Gutiérrez Becerril, former Operations Manager of CFE International (CFEi) and Guillermo Turrent, former Director of CFEi (known as CFEnergía in Mexico). Mexico Infrastructure Forum / Cuartoscuro
Two former officials of Mexico’s state electric company, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), are facing a jury in an ongoing civil case over alleged corruption in a Texas court. Guillermo Turrent, who ran the company’s overseas private subsidiary, CFE International (CFEi), and Javier Gutiérrez, CFEi’s former chief operations officer, are accused of granting billions of dollars in unnecessary and overpriced natural gas contracts to Whitewater Midstream between 2016 and 2018. When Whitewater got the deals, it was a small, unknown startup in Austin, Texas, founded by friends and former colleagues of Turrent.
According to transcripts of a May 4 hearing obtained by EL PAÍS, a Houston, Texas, judge has scheduled Turrent and Gutiérrez for the October 2024 jury trial, a date that could change if adjustments are made to the court’s schedule comes. CFEi’s legal team alleges that the Whitewater Accords benefited the Texas company and its executives and “did significant and lasting harm to CFEi, as well as to CFE…and ultimately to the people of Mexico.”
In 2021, the CFE launched an investigation into the contracts awarded to Whitewater, a recently formed energy company with no prior track record in the industry, after an investigation by EL PAÍS uncovered the long-standing relationships between Turrent, Gutierrez and the founders of the texan companies.
Turrent and Gutiérrez have invoked their Fifth Amendment right as US citizens, which protects them from self-incrimination in connection with interrogation, according to a public record. Both hold dual citizenship of Mexico and the United States
In preparation for the jury trial, CFEi’s legal department issued a subpoena to Matthew Calhoun, a founder of Whitewater Midstream who has a long-standing relationship with Turrent dating back to their days as colleagues at Royal Dutch Shell in California in the 2000s. The subpoena requests Calhoun to disclose any documents or electronic communications between him, Turrent and Gutiérrez. Calhoun is also instructed to keep all information “regarding payments, funds, [or] Compensation” from 2013 to present associated with Turrent, Gutiérrez or their private consultancies. Calhoun was previously chief executive officer of a company called Antaeus Group, which received contracts from the CFE during the time Turrent and Gutiérrez were executives of the state company.
In the transcript obtained by EL PAÍS, Turrent and Gutiérrez’s defense team filed a motion to dismiss the US trial, arguing that the trial should take place in Mexico. The CFEI legal team disagrees as all the contracts in question were signed in the US and fall under US jurisdiction.
CFE is a state company tacitly supported by Mexican taxpayers. Its subsidiary CFEi was incorporated as a private company in the US, although it is 100% owned by a state-owned company in Mexico. The contracts between CFEi and Whitewater are governed by US law and relate to pipelines located in the State of Texas.
Given the proposed timeline for the case, the jury trial would begin in October 2024 following the conclusion of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government, which has spearheaded the investigation into possible corruption related to the Whitewater contracts awarded by the CFE. Mexico will elect a new president in July 2024. In Mexico, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor in the Attorney General’s Office is conducting a criminal investigation into Turrent and has an ongoing case against Gutiérrez.
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