Ricardo Salinas Pliego

Mexican Oligarch, owns payday lender AdvanceAmerica,  Chairman of TV Azteca, Foundation Azteca, and donated to the Trump Campaign

Grupo Salinas started in 1906 by his “great grandfather, Benjamín Salinas, created Salinas & Rocha, a modest family-owned furniture manufacturing company. In 1950, Salinas’ grandfather, Hugo Salinas Rocha, created Grupo Elektra, and when Ricardo Salinas became CEO of the company in 1987, Elektra had fewer than 60 stores and averted financial distress following the devaluation of the peso. Salinas also formed the nonprofit Fundación Azteca in 1997 to address a broad range of social problems with ongoing campaigns in healthcare and nutrition, education, and the protection of the environment. It is a foundation that finances and supports other foundations. On November 18, 2008 it was announced that Salinas purchased 28 percent of the bankrupted American retailer Circuit City.[29] Ultimately Salinas lost $41 million on his Circuit City stake after his attempts to restructure debt with store suppliers failed and he consequently abandoned plans to buy the company.[30]” Wikipedia

Backed Obrador:  AMLO: Privatization in Mexico Will Go to ‘Dustbin of History’ Telesur May 29, 2018 by Ramzy Baroud “But he also praised Ricardo Salinas Pliego, one of Mexico’s biggest tycoons who has benefited from the state’s privatization policies. The Mexican center-left presidential frontrunner for the “Together We’ll Make History” coalition Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, said that privatization policies “will go to the dustbin of history” in case he wins the July 1 elections. [Obrador won]. In a region where farmers are in a constant struggle for water against big industries and large-scale agriculture, Lopez Obrador promised that water won’t be privatized, as “some groups in power are proposing,” but that a million hectares of fruit and timber trees will be planted to create 400,000 jobs in the region. But hours before his event in Zitacuaro, the candidate tried to appease the business class in an event called “Recover Your Future,” organized by Grupo Salinas, one of the biggest media, transport and communication conglomerates in Latin America, saying he wouldn’t expropriate anything, but he also criticized those businesspeople that opposed a change in Mexican society.

Mexican Billionaire Buys Advance America, Largest Payday Lender In U.S. Forbes “Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego is opening for business in the U.S.: his Grupo Elektra announced Monday morning its successful purchase of Advance America–the largest payday lender in the U.S. Stockholders approved the $780 million purchase price Grupo Elektra offered in February, a figure that includes all outstanding shares of the American firm and repayment of the company’s debt. There will be no immediate changes to the American firm’s operations, and CEO Patrick O’Shaugnessey has agreed to stay on board, says Elektra spokesman Daniel McCosh. Grupo Elektra ranks  802 on our list of the World’s Biggest Public Companies, and its latest acquisition seems a natural fit for Salinas’ portfolio of profitable businesses. In Mexico, Salinas oversees his family-founded Elektra retail chain, which sells washers and dryers at low weekly rates plus interest, as well as a prolific motorcycle scooter plant, a television station, a cell phone company, and his bank. Ten years ago [2002], Salinas opened Banco Azteca branches inside his Elektra retail stores and began offering financial services to Mexico’s poor.”