Mexico uncovers $151M fraud in Tabasco

(Vatican Radio) Mexico's attorney general is vowing to get to the bottom of a multi-million-dollar fraud, involving a vast-scale siphoning of public funds in the southern state of Tabasco.

Famed for its fiery red sauce, the scandal searing Tabasco is even more breathtaking. Current Governor Arturo Nunez says an audit focusing on the six-year administration of his predecessor, Andres Granier, detected the equivalent of $151 million missing from public coffers.

A huge cash haul of more than the equivalent of $7 million has been discovered in the office of Granier's then-finance secretary, Jose Sainz. Granier has yet to be arrested or charged with any crime.

Mexico's Attorney General Miguel Angel Osorio Chong is pledging a thorough and wide-ranging investigation. He has denied that Granier is receiving preferential treatment because he is a member of ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Listen to the report by James Blears: