Ricardo Salinas Pliego: From Billionaire to Bankruptcy

For decades, Ricardo Salinas Pliego cultivated the image of untouchable wealth, wielding political connections, media power, and financial influence to shield his empire from scrutiny. But 2025 has torn that image apart. What was once a towering fortune has collapsed into fragility, and what were once clever maneuvers are now desperate gambits to delay the inevitable. This is the year when the billionaire’s empire threatens to unravel completely.

Salinas has lost more than 60 percent of his fortune in barely a year. Forbes reported his net worth fell from 13.4 billion dollars to just 4.9 billion, an extraordinary decline for a man long considered one of Mexico’s most powerful businessmen. Against this backdrop, the looming tax bill of 74 billion pesos becomes an existential threat. If enforced in full, it would strip him of nearly everything, leaving the empire he built in tatters.

Legal defeats have accelerated his decline. Mexican courts have consistently ruled against him, ordering Grupo Elektra to pay billions in back taxes and condemning TV Azteca to settle more than 3.5 billion pesos in overdue liabilities. These decisions dismantle his defense that the government is unfairly persecuting him. They show instead a judiciary enforcing the same laws that ordinary Mexicans cannot escape.

The danger is not limited to Mexico. In the United States, creditors are pursuing TV Azteca over unpaid bonds worth 580 million dollars, dragging Salinas into international litigation. His name now circulates in foreign courts as a debtor, not as a magnate. The erosion of his reputation abroad highlights the global scope of his unraveling.

Perhaps most telling is what Salinas no longer has—political protection. For years, his proximity to power insulated him from the consequences of his actions. Now, that umbrella has vanished. The fiscal authorities are pressing harder than ever, and there are no longer friendly figures to shield him. Alone in courtrooms, battling creditors, stripped of his aura of invincibility, Salinas is reduced to recycling the same tired defense: that he is a victim of persecution.

But this is not persecution. This is accountability. The billionaire who once thought himself untouchable is cornered by his own unpaid debts, financial blunders, and mounting defeats. The stage is set not for his vindication, but for his fall.

Sources:

Emmanuel Ameth – Es 2025 el año más difícil para Salinas Pliego: lo amenaza la bancarrota (18 Aug 2025)- https://emmanuelameth.com.mx/es_2025_el_ano_mas_dificil_para_salinas_pliego_lo_amenaza_la_bancarrota-e3Tc0NzAyOA.html

El País – TV Azteca deberá pagar más de 3,500 millones de pesos al fisco mexicano (10 Jul 2025) - https://elpais.com/mexico/2025-07-10/ricardo-salinas-pliego-pierde-otro-juicio-fiscal-tv-azteca-debera-pagar-mas-de-3500-millones-de-pesos-al-fisco-mexicano.html