Sebastian Pi?era and his scandalous criminal record during 37 years of stealing and scamming in Chile
Roberto Rojas-Morales MBA, MA (Res. Hons), AFACHSM
Senior Health & Medical Executive & Strategic Consultant
It is still curious that Sebastián Pi?era, every time he is accused of corruption, both he and his defenders accuse that it is “a campaign against him”, an argument that all criminals use to victimize . The point is that, being lawyers of the devil, we could say that there is indeed a campaign against him if it were a case, maybe two, maybe even three corruption scandals. But in the case of Pi?era, we are talking about a lifetime committing crimes. More than 30 years of robberies, embezzlement and scams, which far from being "campaigns against him," reveal that we are not only facing an incredibly corrupt guy, but of a criminal with all his letters. Let's list:
August 28, 1982 is marked in the personal calendar of Sebastián Pi?era as the worst day of his life. One who has wanted to forget and leave buried in the past, but who has not abandoned him in his nightmares. That day, then-minister Luis Correa Bulo declared him an inmate and ordered his arrest for fraud against the Bank of Talca and violations of the General Banking Law. In the same opinion, he extended the charges against Miguel Calaf and Alberto Danioni, at that time partners of Pi?era and controllers of the Bank of Talca, who were already held in the Capuchinos Prison Annex. Pi?era saved from being arrested because, warned of the judicial decision, he chose to flee from justice and remained hidden for 24 days, while it took his lawyers to process an appeal for protection in his favor that guaranteed his freedom. Only then,In the end he was saved by the Minister of Dictatorship Mónica Madariaga .
Patricio Phillips, director of the Cascadas companies, told the Investigative Commission that former President Sebastián Pi?era had a direct connection with the Cascadas case. Phillips presented a series of antecedents that, in his opinion, account for the negotiations that former President Pi?era led in order to achieve the merger of the Cascadas companies, as a way to improve his position in the business. According to Phillips, Pi?era would have asked Julio Ponce Lerou for compensation of $ 70 million, through the Asset Currency broker and other intermediaries to end the Cascade conflict. Faced with the refusal by the Soquimich controller, Pi?era would have sent the lawyer Darío Calderón, who acted as negotiator in front of Julio Ponce, in order to achieve the merger of the Cascades.
The Case of Sparks, also called ?the business of the century?, was a stock and political scandal that occurred in Chile in 1997. It originated from the purchase of shares of the Endesa Spain company from the Chilean company Enersis, which had a broad political impact upon reaching the then presidential candidate Sebastián Pi?era and questioning the privatization of public companies at the end of the "Pinochet era". Subsequently, in 2004, the justice sentenced those involved with the payment of USD $ 75 million in fines, their total earnings being more than 400 million
The Superintendence of Securities and Insurance (SVS) resolved to fine Sebastián Pi?era Eche?ique, director of LAN Airlines SA, for having violated the prohibition to buy shares that the Securities Market Law imposes on people who have privileged information. Consequently, the SVS resolved to fine Pi?era for UF 19,470 ($ 363 million), for the operation through which it acquired, through the company Santa Cecilia SA, a total of 3 million shares of LAN Airlines SA, for an amount of $ 9,840 million, on July 24, 2006. This, given that in his capacity as director, at the time he made the purchase, he knew in detail the financial statements of that company (as of the second quarter of 2006), which were not of Public knowledge
In 2009, while serving as administration and finance manager for Bancard - Bancorp controller - Santiago Valdés was also the election manager of the Pi?era campaign. He was in charge of the box and saw the money flows from the presidential bet of the then owner of Blanco y Negro and CHV. One of those contracts was for 50 million pesos, when Pi?era was a presidential candidate.
SQM's chief financial officer, Gerardo Illanes, referred to the five bills for $ 22 million ($ 110 million in total) that Sebastián Pi?era's company, Bancorp issued to SQM, ensuring that "those services did not exist." This version coincides with the rectification presented by SQM before the SII, where it had already recognized that Bancorp had never provided services to them despite receiving the money. This contradicts the firm linked to the former President, who said that the services and advice had been performed.
In 2009, when Sebastián Pi?era owned Chilevisión, the performance bonuses were paid to senior executives. That same year the executive director of the channel, Jaime de Aguirre, through his company Inversiones La Música Limitada, issued tickets to four companies for a total of $ 130 million for this concept. So far it is known that the performance bonus was paid by Soquimich - through three tickets for $ 45 million - and Aguas Andinas - by way of three tickets for $ 30 million. To these companies are added two others that complete the $ 130 million. One of them would also be a regulated company. Information collected by the Counter indicates that this formula was requested by Pi?era and Bancard to the four companies.
Illegal contributions of the Said Group
A tax rectification carried out by the Said Group, (Banco BBVA, Embotelladora Andina, Parque Arauco, Isapre Cruz Blanca), revealed 100 million pesos delivered for services not provided to Pi?era companies during the electoral period, which do not have any type of accounting support. Through Inversiones Caburga, the Said Somavía allocated $ 50 million to two companies of the former president: Inmobiliaria El Boldo ($ 41.7 million) and Inversiones Santa Cecilia ($ 8.2 million). Through Newport (which today operates as Inversiones Santa Virginia), the Said Handal cooperated with an identical figure, $ 50 million, but divided into three companies: Bancard, Inmobiliaria El Boldo and Inversiones Santa Cecilia.
According to the testimony of Iván Rojas, executive of the Cruzat group, the forward contract signed between Bancorp - linked to the businesses of Sebastián Pi?era - and CB on December 7, 2009, was commissioned by Hugo Bravo, as well as 101 other financial documents which he delivered to the Prosecutor's Office at the end of February. The signing of that contract was carried out by the sister of “Choclo” Délano, Ana María, and Santiago Valdés, son of one of the best friends of the former president, Fabio Valdés, director of Canal 13 and Penta companies. A fact not mentioned so far is that in 2009, while serving as administration and finance manager of Bancard - Bancorp controller -, Santiago Valdés was also the electoral administrator of the Pi?era campaign. He was in charge of the box and saw the money flows from the presidential bet of the then owner of Blanco y Negro and CHV. Even a report by Ciper mentioned that he was known as the "finance minister of the campaign."
The government of Sebastián Pi?era made millionaire financial transfers between Chile and abroad with the surpluses coming from the Copper Reserved Law without informing its details to Congress or citizens (...) The operation began in 2010 under the direction of the Minister of Finance, Felipe Larraín and the head of Defense, Jaime Ravinet. "In a secret session of the Defense Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, we were told that for a liquidity issue it was preferable to bring the funds to Chile from the United States," said Deputy Rincon. "It was feared that in case of war there would be an embargo on these resources"
Cecilia Morel, Mrs. Sebastián Pi?era, has companies incorporated in the tax haven of Panama. Specifically, these are two companies that date back to the 80's that are still in force.
Former President Sebastián Pi?era used the mechanism of political donations, which can generate tax benefits, to contribute $ 2,075 million to National Renewal. Said money was used by the party to pay a debt that it maintained with the same former President. Somehow, it was as if Pi?era had taken silver from one pocket to put it in the other. Once in La Moneda, Pi?era implemented the formula with which RN would pay off the debt. In May 2010, it closed the sale of Axxion, the company through which it had a stake in Lan. The Bethia Group disbursed US $ 1.5 billion and assumed the liabilities and commitments of Axxion. Among the latter was the donation of $ 2,075 million to National Renewal.
After swearing that he had never met with the convicted of corruption former Minister of Transportation of Argentina, Ricardo Jaime, this in the midst of investigations for the payment of bribes in LAN operations, after appearing evidence that proved otherwise, to Pi?era He had no choice but to change his version and acknowledge that he had met him:
Appear as corrupt in Transparency International
In the "Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and the private sector", prepared by Transparencia Internacional (agency dedicated to fighting political corruption), Sebastián Pi?era appeared in the section dedicated to Chile, due to the abuse of privileged information in the purchase of shares of LAN.
Even their children made fake ballots
Administrator Bancorp and Vox Populi are the companies related to former President Pi?era listed in the Internal Tax complaint. The first questioned 15 invoices issued to SQM for a lump sum of $ 318 million. On the second, five bills for $ 26 million. The legal representatives of both societies are part of the closest circle of the former president: his children Magdalena and Sebastián Pi?era Morel; the general manager of his family office, Nicolás Noguera Correa; its investment and finance manager, Javier Cavagnaro Infante; his friend and trusted man, José Cox Donoso; Bancard executives, Eduardo Befferman Córdova and Cristóbal Silva Lombardi; and Catalina Lamarca Délano, niece of her personal friend and controller of Penta - today in pretrial detention - Carlos Alberto Délano.
Doing business using insider information while he was President
Sebastián Pi?era, while still President, bought shares of a Peruvian fishing company benefiting from the Hague ruling. BBC World reported: “It was just beginning to be seen as the safest letter of the Chilean right-wing center for the 2018 presidential elections when the problems began in their incipient candidacy. Sebastián Pi?era, president of Chile between 2010 and 2014, had to leave Monday afternoon to explain why the parent of its investment holding company, Bancard, invested in a Peruvian fishing company. According to data contained in its annual reports, Exalmar is the fourth producer of fishmeal from Peru, which in turn is the first producer and exporter of the raw material. Today the Pi?era parent company has 9.10% of the property, being the second most important shareholder of the fishery, as stated in Exalmar's financial statements.
Hide your fortune in tax havens
Deputy Leonardo Soto (PS) officiated the Financial Analysis Unit of the Ministry of Finance (UAF), a service specialized in preventing money laundering, in order to gather background information on possible crimes associated with the operations of the company that administers funds by Sebastián Pi?era abroad: Bancard International Investment. This, because the specific company that invested the actions of the former President in Exalmar is domiciled in a tax haven in the British Virgin Islands, which “from the point of view of the international community could mean the existence of money laundering, money laundering active or fraud to the treasury ”, according to the deputy. The parliamentarian recalls that the UDI presidential candidate and former Minister of the Government of Sebastián Pi?era, Laurence Golborne,
After 3 months without delivering the emails requested by the Prosecutor, and after being summoned to testify as a defendant, Radio Bío Bío revealed the existence of an email that shows that Sebastián Pi?era Morel, son of the former president, was aware of The investment that Bancard made in Empresa Pesquera Exalmar SA Business that we remember, Pi?era made while he was still President using privileged information and that he reported millions of profits while Chile lost in The Hague. As Radio Bío Bío writes, the e-mail reports the report regarding the business that Cristóbal Silva, analyst and advisor to Bancard, delivers to Nicolás Noguera, Carlos Marinetti and Sebastián Pi?era Jr. In the text, Cristóbal Silva delivers the arguments for which he rejects the, until that moment, eventual business. He says, among other things,
An investigation of Radio Bío Bío, denounced the interests that Pi?era had when in 2010 he announced the descent of the Barrancones Thermoelectric Power Plant: His family was one of the main shareholders of a business that intended to settle in the same sector with Minera Andes Iron, the parent company of Minera Dominga . All this, in an operation for more than 6,765 million pesos. Sebastián Pi?era had been President of Chile for just six months when on August 26, 2010 he announced that the Barrancones Thermoelectric Power Plant was no longer going. What Pi?era did not mention at that time - or any other - is that he, his four children, two of his most trusted executives and a close friend, had deep commercial interests in the area where the thermoelectric plant would be installed. All were part of a project that had been brewing for more than a year, that in those days it gained strength and that only a few months later it would begin to be processed in the Environmental Assessment System (SEA). When the President came down Barrancones, his family was one of the main shareholders of Minera Andes Iron, the parent company of Minera Dominga. None of this appeared in their declarations of heritage and interests. Radio Bío tracked publications in the Official Gazette and various documents in notaries and the Judicial Archive that realize that in the genesis of the Dominga mining and port project, Sebastián Pi?era was key: he not only had investments there; he and his family were the majority partners. His family was one of the main shareholders of Minera Andes Iron, the parent company of Minera Dominga. None of this appeared in their declarations of heritage and interests. Radio Bío tracked publications in the Official Gazette and various documents in notaries and the Judicial Archive that realize that in the genesis of the Dominga mining and port project, Sebastián Pi?era was key: he not only had investments there; he and his family were the majority partners. His family was one of the main shareholders of Minera Andes Iron, the parent company of Minera Dominga. None of this appeared in their declarations of heritage and interests. Radio Bío tracked publications in the Official Gazette and various documents in notaries and the Judicial Archive that realize that in the genesis of the Dominga mining and port project, Sebastián Pi?era was key: he not only had investments there; he and his family were the majority partners.
Within the framework of the Asipes and Corpesca Cases, related to bribes paid by fishing companies to approve the Longueira Law, the Public Ministry published the list with the amounts of the “legal contributions” made by six of them to 35 politicians, for a Total amount of 333 million pesos. Among them, Sebastián Pi?era stands out, at that time a presidential candidate, who received 82 million pesos: Blumar handed him 31 million pesos, Camanchaca another 28 million, Alimentos Marinos 14 million and Pesquera Bío Bío 9 million pesos.
Once you can chance, maybe two and even three times. But Pi?era has been stealing, cheating and embezzling for 35 years. Neither political persecution nor mudding his image, Pi?era is a criminal with all his letters