Lady Profeco Case: 7 More Officials Punished As Mexico Cracks Down On Power Abuse Practices

Mexico's Ministry of Public Administration (SFP) has punished seven more officials from the Federal Consumer Protection Office (Profeco) who were involved in the case of Andrea Benítez González, or "Lady Profeco," who after a dispute over seating at a Mexico City restaurant used her father's influence in the federal office to get the restaurant closed. Of the seven, four have been relieved of their duties and three suspended for six months, the agency said in a statement. In a flood of action following the case, the office has fined airlines, shampoo lines, luxury car manufacturers, fast food chains and, most recently, 15 hotels in Mexico City, according to Animal Politico.

RELATED: Consumer Protection Office Head Fired After Daughter Has Restaurant Closed

The Lady Profeco case saw the daughter of now-ex-attorney general Humberto Benítez Treviño -- who was fired after details of the case became known -- raising a fuss after she didn't get the table she wanted at a chic bistro in the Mexico City neighborhood of La Roma. Agents from the federal office came to the restaurant to inform the bistro that their permit to hold reservations and another for liquor sales had been suspended, just hours after she stormed off. Humberto Benítez Treviño wrote in an apology issued afterward that he had "overreacted" in calling for the raid, but insisted he was not involved in any wrongdoing.

RELATED: Andrea Benitez, Daughter Of Consumer Protection Office, Has Restaurant Shut Down After Being Given Bad Table

According to the Ministry of Public Administration, the four fired officials were assistant prosecutor Roberto Figueroa Martínez; Jesús Rolando Rangel, the General Director of Verification and Vigilance; Abraham Sánchez Fuentes, Department Head of Official Mexican Legal Verification; and Policarpo Montes de Oca Álvarez, Director of Rules and Sanctions. The first three are banned from serving in a position of public service for a year. Three more inspectors from the office have been suspended from their jobs for six months.

Since Benítez Treviño was fired and Alfredo Castillo took over the office title on May 21, the Consumer Protection Office has kept its agents busy.

"What we're trying to do is make it perfectly clear with a few examples that any service provider could be next ... so they're going to have to have all their papers in order, put their prices in open view, and have their adhesion contracts registered with Profeco," the new attorney general with the agency said in a radio interview.