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Feds seize $2.2 million stolen by former Coahuila treasurer
Posted: 02.06.2013 at 6:26 PM
Sergio Chapa

Sergio is KGBT's Interactive Manager and a reporter for VALLEYCENTRAL.COM.

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Hector Javier Villarreal-Hernandez // Smith County Sheriff's Office Photo
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Authorities have seized more than $2.2 million allegedly embezzled by the former treasurer for the State of Coahuila.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston announced that federal prosecutors filed a forfeiture lawsuit in Corpus Christi.

Federal prosecutors allege that Hector Javier Villarreal-Hernandez funneled some of the stolen money to a Chase bank account in Brownsville.

According to the lawsuit, Villarreal-Hernandez then transferred $2,275,000 dollars to a bank account he opened in Bermuda.

Prosecutors have filed the lawsuit to seize the funds in that bank account.

While serving as Coahuila's treasurer, Villarreal-Hernandez allegedly took out loans worth $246 million dollars in the state's name.

He and others allegedly funneled that money to Texas where they bought real estate in San Antonio, Brownsville and South Padre Island.

Federal prosecutors moved to seize those properties in April 2012.

Villarreal-Hernandez is facing criminal charges in Mexico and San Antonio.

The former Mexican official was arrested with $67,000 dollars in cash in Tyler back in February 2012 but he was released after being taken to a U.S. Homeland Security facility.

His whereabouts remain unknown.

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