The Chilean prosecution has opened an ex officio investigation into President Sebastián Piñera for the Pandora Papers

The Chilean public prosecutor’s office reported on Friday the opening of an ex officio investigation against the country’s president, Sebastián Piñera, after the publication of Pandora Papers reveal alleged irregularities in the 2010 sale in the British Virgin Islands of its actions in a mining megaproject.

“The public prosecutor has decided to automatically open a criminal investigation into the events related to the Pandora Papers»Announced the anti-corruption director of the national prosecutor’s office, Marta Herrera.

Among the crimes that will be investigated are “bribes, bribes and tributariesHerrera added.

This happened after Chilean opposition MPs announced that they will present a constitutional charge against Piñera. “All the opposition benches We agreed to launch a constitutional indictment against President Sebastián Piñera», He declared to the press in Congress Jaime Naranjo, member of the Socialist Party, flanked by other parliamentarians.

The constitutional prosecution seeks to establish the responsibility of senior officials and, if successful, may lead to the dismissal of Piñera, six weeks before the first round of the presidential election. It could also result in the defendant’s inability to hold public office, but in order to thrive, the absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies.

Piñera is in the center of controversy after Chilean media investigation LaBot and CIPER, part of the Pandora Papers of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), linked it to the 2010 sale of mining company Dominga Through a company owned by his children, businessman Carlos Délano – a close friend of the president – for $ 152 million.

Piñera and his family have reportedly sealed the controversial sale of their stake in the project, which seriously threatens an important natural sanctuary in the north of the country.

According to the same survey, a large part of the operation was carried out in the tax haven of the Islands british virgins.

Likewise, the agreement included a controversial clause which conditioned the company’s latest payment to “not establish an environmental protection zone on the mining area, as environmental groups have asserted“, A decision that falls to the figure of the Chilean president.

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