The corruption plot between former Pemex CEO and Brazilian company Odebrecht reached Angela Merkel

The investigation conducted by the head of Mexico's Financial Intelligence Unit, Santiago Nieto, for which former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya was apprehended in Spain, points to a triangulation of companies (Odebrecht, OHL and Altos Hornos) in whose epicenter appears Henze & Partner AG.

The owner of the company, which is suspected of having been used to launder illicit money, is a German financier who spends most of his time in Switzerland and who, according to diplomatic sources, has direct access to German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, one of the high-ranking members of Angela Markel's cabinet.

This link is not surprising because Lozoya's wife, Marielle Eckes, comes from a wealthy German family whose connections Lozoya used to set up various businesses in that country. One detail: despite her husband's arrest, Eckes remains in hiding.

It would not be unreasonable to connect Eckes' absence to the journalistic chronicle of Lozoya's adventures in Russia, where he was often linked to a Russian woman.

The Mexican authorities know very little about Henze at the moment, beyond his occupation and some of his movements. He is a low-profile figure, but very active in terms of political funding in Germany.

According to the weekly Proceso, Henze&Partner is formed by Hubert Patz and Haas Thomas.

Scholz, who is reportedly closely associated with Henze, is Merkel's finance minister. He was the mayor of Hamburg and the leader of the Social Democratic Party, which is a key piece of the governing coalition that holds Merkel at the head of the Eurozone's leading economy.