Wednesday, December 14, 2005

INVESTIGATIONS INTO PINOCHET’S SECRET FORTUNE EXPAND

Judge Carlos Cerda moved forward on several fronts in the Riggs Bank case Tuesday ordering a financial assessment of two of former dictator Augusto Pinochet’s mansions, another request to Citibank to provide him with the details of a series of money transfers made on behalf of members of Pinochet’s family, and request to the Finance Ministry for a list of all previous directors of the national budget between 1973 and 1998, corresponding to the years that Pinochet was the military commander in chief.

The first order requests that the four architects that built Pinochet’s two homes, Claudio Correa, Claudio Escobar, Mario Contreras, and José Reyes, provide Judge Cerda with the exact value of Pinochet’s homes in Los Boldes in Region V and La Dehesa, an upscale community in Santiago. Judge Cerda also requested the Police Investigations unit to provide him with detailed blue-prints and aerial photographs of the two properties

According to a transcript of the order, Cerda would like to “define the cost-quality relationship of the two homes to determine whether or not there was an overestimation of the cost of the materials used.”

The second order directed at Citibank was a reiteration of a previous request that the bank explain its relationship with Pinochet and his family and provide detailed information about several accounts that he and his wife and children maintained at the bank.

Judge Cerda is investigating two U.S. Citibank executives, Maureen Ruggiero and Emilie Judd O’Neill on allegations that they helped Pinochet hide his fortune from Chilean authorities. The Pinochet family opened 63 different Private Bank accounts between 1981 and 2004. Fifteen of these were directly related to Pinochet, and 19 in the name of other Pinochet family members (ST, Nov. 24).

The last order directed at the Finance ministry is meant to determine the exact amount of “reserve funds” appropriated from the national treasury that Pinochet had access to as commander in chief of Chile’s armed forces.

This new flurry of activity follows more than a year of painstaking investigations into the various sources of Pinochet’s hidden wealth. To date, authorities believe that Pinochet amassed more than US$27 million in bank accounts and offshore holding companies around the world. The former dictator has been arrested on charges of tax evasion, money laundering, and falsifying official documents, his wife and four children are also being investigated as accomplices to the financial crimes.

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