The Grey House, Revisited
New Pemex contract disclosures tighten the timeline around the president's son and Baker Hughes.
Documents released in early 2023 by Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity sharpen the record around La Casa Gris — the Houston residence occupied by the president's oldest son between 2019 and 2021 — and raise the same question from a different angle: whether a U.S. investigation is now unavoidable.
Source and Scope
Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad (MCCI) released investigative findings in early February 2023 covering more than 200 Pemex Procurement International contracts. Columnist Salvador García Soto of El Universal published a companion piece the same week, connecting the disclosures to the return of the president's oldest son, José Ramón López Beltrán, from Houston to Mexico City in late 2022.
This note is analytical commentary on those reports. Source citations are given for readers who want the full record: the MCCI investigation is available through mcci.mx and latinus.us, and the El Universal column is available through eluniversal.com.mx.
The Timeline Tightens
On August 16, 2019, José Ramón López Beltrán and his wife Carolyn Adams moved into La Casa Gris in an Oak Estates enclave on the north side of Houston. MCCI's review of Pemex Procurement International (PPI) files shows that, on the same date, a Baker Hughes subsidiary signed a contract with PPI at the Houston headquarters. Seven additional contracts followed between August and October 2019, totaling $1.094 million.
The assigning and signing of the contracts took place in the United States, during a period when the residence's owner, Keith Schilling, served as president of Baker Hughes Canada and as commercial and sales director in Houston. Across 2019–2021 — the years the López-Adams family occupied the house — PPI and Baker Hughes subsidiaries signed at least 11 contracts in Houston for a total exceeding $29 million, or roughly 600 million pesos.
The Earlier Denials
In February 2022, after MCCI and LatinUS first reported on La Casa Gris, Baker Hughes publicly stated that its North American division — which Schilling had led — did not conduct business with Mexico. The company's then-regional president, Bob Perez, dismissed any conflict of interest. The 2023 disclosures contradict that characterization on its face. Dresser LLC and Bently Nevada LLC — both Baker Hughes subsidiaries — were signatories to multiple 2019 contracts covering Pemex refineries in Tula Hidalgo, Cadereyta, and Salina Cruz.
One of the Dresser contracts is dated August 16, 2019 — the same day, according to the president's daughter-in-law, that the family began renting the Houston house for $5,600 per month. That date precision is what moves the case from optics to document evidence.
The Return From Houston
The López Beltrán family's departure from Houston in late 2022 was handled quietly. Salvador García Soto reports that the move was made on the recommendation of presidential counselors, citing concern about a possible U.S. investigation of Baker Hughes in connection with PPI. The public surface of the return was a January 15, 2023 incident at a Mexico City restaurant, where a patron attempting to photograph the family prompted a brief confrontation with José Ramón.
Parallel open-source reporting has referenced National Intelligence Center (CNI) assessments that U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel had monitored José Ramón's activities in the United States. Neither government has publicly confirmed those claims. What is a matter of public record is that the family left a high-visibility lifestyle in Houston only weeks before the MCCI contract disclosures landed.
Where It Now Sits
Pemex has complied only partially with INAI rulings ordering disclosure of PPI contracts: roughly 200 of more than 500 contracts issued during the current six-year term have been released, in redacted form. The Mexican government and Baker Hughes have both previously denied any conflict of interest. The contract dates, signatories, and residence timeline published by MCCI stand alongside those denials and are available for verification.
For a private operator, the practical reading is that an emergent U.S. securities investigation remains a credible scenario, and that the reputational trajectory of the executives and institutions named in the case is still moving.
The Takeaways
The MCCI disclosures shift the case from inference to dated contract evidence; the signing dates themselves carry the weight.
Pemex Procurement International remains the central node — not the Mexico City headquarters — and its contract archive is still only partially public.
Baker Hughes' 2022 public statements are now inconsistent with the 2023 document record, which raises a credible disclosure and enforcement question on the U.S. side.
For any private operator touching Pemex or its subsidiaries, the relevant posture is careful contract-history review and independent verification rather than reliance on counterparty disclosures.
The Intelligence Research Desk at GO PRIVATELY LLC
All information sourced from publicly available intelligence. Conditions evolve; verify current status before operational decisions.
