Mexico Arrests 2 Executives on Tax Charges

The Mexican government detained the president and the chairman of Grupo Sidek, a beleaguered Mexican tourism and steel company, on charges of evading taxes on as much as $10.5 million. The federal attorney general’s office said Jose Martinez Guitron, Sidek’s president, and Jose Manuel Gomez Gil, chairman of the board and its main shareholder, also were arrested on charges of falsely declaring taxes paid on six companies that belonged to the Sidek group in 1995. Sidek, which stopped servicing its debts in the wake of the December 1994 peso devaluation, is in the middle of a five-year plan to sell off its assets to pay back creditors. Most of its debts are held by the government, which bailed out Mexican banks and companies after the financial crisis in 1995.