Friday 22 September 2023

Chile corruption probe after president cited in Pandora Papers

President Sebastian Pinera said he found "it difficult to understand" why the public prosecutor wanted to investigate claims of wrongdoing in the sale of a mining company via a family-owned firm.

Paying the bills

Latest

Is Costa Rica’s ā€˜Blue Zone’ vanishing?

QCOSTARICA -- The shrinking of Costa Rica’s Blue Zone...

Costa Rica clarifies tax treatment of crypto-assets

QCOSTARICA - Costa Rica's tax authority - issued a...

U.S. Returns Historical Indigenous Artifacts to Costa Rica

QCOSTARICA -- NBC6 Miami reports that several pre-Columbian artifacts...

UN Declares U.S. Southwest Border ā€˜World’s Deadliest Migration Land Route

Q24N (CIS.org) On September 12, the International Organization for...

BIG HIT! Increase of up to ¢71 in gasoline for October proposed

On the heels of a big increase in fuel...

Costa Rica’s ā€œPura Vidaā€ reputation tarnished by violence and homicides from drug trafficking

QCOSTARICA -- Drug trafficking-related violence and homicides pose a...

Costa Rican blue zone diet help residents live to 100

Q24N (Fortune Well) Six areas across the globe are...

Dollar Exchange

Ā¢536.53 BUY

Ā¢541.85 SELL

22 September 2023 - At The Banks - Source: BCCR

Paying the bills

Share

Q24N (DW) Chile opened an investigation into President Sebastian Pinera on Friday for potential financial irregularities relating to the sale of a mining company through a firm owned by his children.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has denied any wrongdoing

The sale of Dominga in 2010, which was highlighted in the Pandora Papers leak, involved a firm “linked to the family of President Pinera,” said Marta Herrera, head of the anti-corruption unit in the public prosecutor’s office.

“The national prosecutor has decided to open a criminal investigation regarding the facts associated with the Pandora Papers,” Herrera said.

- Advertisement -

Pinera responded to the investigation by saying “it is difficult to understand” the decision of the prosecutor’s office because the disclosed facts were already “investigated” and “dismissed” in 2017.

Bribery and tax crimes’

On Monday, Pinera said there was no conflict of interest in the deal, which took place during his first stint as Chilean president.

But Attorney General Jorge Herrera said the public prosecutor’s office had initiated an investigation because of the possibility that the transaction involved “bribery and tax crimes.”

Herrera said convictions for such offenses would mean a five-year prison term.

An investigation carried out by two Chilean media outlets, CIPER and LaBot — both of which are part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which produced the Pandora Papers — reported that Dominga was sold in a $152 million (€131 million) deal to a friend of Pinera’s, businessman Carlos Alberto Delano. The transaction was conducted in the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands synonymous with being a tax haven.
Environmental protection ignored

The investigation found that the payment was scheduled to be staggered over three installments with a clause that stated the final portion was dependent on “not establishing an area of environmental protection in the area of the mining company’s operations, as environmentalists are demanding.”

- Advertisement -

The investigation suggested that the Pinera government did not create a protected area around the site of mine in question.

The Pandora Papers looked into almost 12 million documents that the ICIJ said revealed hidden wealth, tax avoidance and, in some cases, money laundering, by some of the world’s richest and most powerful people.

- Advertisement -
Paying the bills
Avatar photo
Q24N
Q24N is an aggregator of news for Latin America. Reports from Mexico to the tip of Chile and Caribbean are sourced for our readers to find all their Latin America news in one place.

Related Articles

Costa Rica on alert against possible threat of cyber attacks in South America

QCOSTARICA -- In recent days, countries such as Chile, Colombia, and...

ā€œTrigger-Happyā€ Laws Expand in Latin America

Q REPORTS (IPS) Violence involving organized crime has made Latin America...

Subscribe to our stories

To be updated with all the latest news, offers and special announcements.

%d bloggers like this: