Peralta is the multi-billionaire head of a Mexican telecommunications company. Under Carlos Salinas's privatization of state-owned companies, Peralta bought a cell phone franchise which turned out to be worth more than a billion dollars.

He subsequently sold a minority interest in it to Bell Atlantic for $1.2 billion. According to a Bell Atlantic confidential document, Bell Atlantic understood that the Peraltas were Mexican "robber baron[s]" who have always "had top-level collaborators in the Mexican government."

And, according to documents, in the middle of his deal with Bell Atlantic, Carlos Peralta wired $50 million to Raul Salinas which he and Raul insist was for an investment fund they were setting up with other friends and which Raul would manage. No records exist of a written agreement or of a receipt for this $50 million payment to Raul Salinas.

• Additional information uncovered by FRONTLINE on Peralta's $50 million payment to Raul Salinas and the Bell Atlantic deal

• See Forbes Magazine list of billionaires