Kate del Castillo - H 2015
AP ImagesIn an interview published Tuesday in newspaper El Universal, Mexico’s Attorney General Arely Gomez said the prosecutors’ office is probing Kate del Castillo for possible money laundering in association with drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Gomez told the Mexican daily, “Even when there are indications, we need legal certainty.”
Among several lines of investigation, Gomez said the prosecutors’ office is looking into money laundering surrounding del Castillo’s tequila brand, Tequila del Honor. Authorities also have been investigating whether the actress-producer received illicit funds for a planned biopic about El Chapo.
Gomez told El Universal that the investigation is ongoing and she could offer no specific details of del Castillo’s possible business dealings with the drug lord.
Del Castillo set up Sean Penn’s secret Rolling Stone interview with Guzman in a Mexican jungle and the article went live the day after the kingpin’s Jan. 9 capture.
In a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday, Penn said his El Chapo article had regrettably failed to accomplish what he set out to do: raise awareness about an ongoing drug war that claims tens of thousand of lives each year.
Gomez said Penn currently is not under investigation, nor is director Oliver Stone, whose name has been mentioned among several Hollywood filmmakers rumored to be on the producers’ wish list.
Jose Ibanez, who worked with Stone on South of the Border, is reportedly attached to produce the movie, but his Madrid-based Pentagrama Films did not reply to The Hollywood Reporter’s request for comment.
Del Castillo made her first public statement since the Rolling Stone interview last week. She recently took to Twitter saying she would be telling her side of the story soon.
According to a report published this week in the magazine Proceso, the actress told journalist Lydia Cacho a year ago that she would not accept financing from El Chapo for the film.
“They should be strictly known investors,” del Castillo was quoted as saying.
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