Azteca Chief Settles with SEC

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 15: Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the
chairman of TV Azteca, has agreed to shell out $7.5 million to settle fraud
charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the U.S.

In addition, former TV Azteca chief executive Pedro Padilla
Longoria will pay $1 million to settle the charges leveled against him.

The SEC announced in January 2005 that it was charging
Salinas Pliego with fraud in connection with a debt deal involving its former
mobile unit, Unefon. A company named Codisco, secretly owned by Salinas Pliego,
bought discounted debt from Unefon, which later paid that debt back at full
price. Salinas Pliego reportedly netted about $109 million off that
transaction. Last year, Mexican authorities levied a $2.3 million fine on
Salinas Pliego.

In the settlement, Salinas Pliego neither admitted to nor
denied the charges.