Pinochet son arrested

[seemslikeadream]

From correspondents in Santiago, Chile
July 30, 2004

INVESTIGATORS are closing in on the still-untried Augusto Pinochet, arresting the former Chilean dictator's son after linking his wife to secret multimillion-dollar US bank accounts.

Augusto Pinochet Hiriart was arrested for his part in an organisation that bought and sold cars, presumably stolen, and which falsified its accounting to avoid an estimated $US625,000 ($896,121) in taxes.


Hiriart's wife Luisa was also a signatory to the Riggs accounts and could face charges if the money is found to have been fraudulently obtained.Chile's State Defence Council said last week it would open embezzlement and income tax evasion investigations.


The US Senate found that Riggs Bank had ignored banking regulations to launder money between 1994 and 2002. The accounts held between $US4 million ($5.74 million) and $US8 million ($11.47 million).

Riggs discreetly helped Pinochet hide assets after his arrest in London, when in October 1998 Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon issued a warrant for his capture.

more
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10289457%255E1702,00.html


Pinochet Son Arrested for Alleged Tax Fraud
Following his arrest, Mr. Pinochet Hiriart was transferred to the city of Curico, where a special court is handling the case.

Mr. Pinochet Hiriart's detention comes two weeks after a U.S. Senate report accused a Washington bank of helping his father, General Pinochet, conceal as much as $8 million between 1994 and 2002.

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http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=2A4A9573-F175-4DAC-9F0A226C7C55F901

[Old and In the Way]

1. The Bush Financial Swamp

Wonder why Dimson didn't drain the financial swamps as promised after 9/11.....did Dad explain the facts of life to him?

[seemslikeadream]

2. Pinochet’s son detained for alleged tax fraud

Mr. A. Pinochet Hiriart
Augusto Pinochet Hiriart was detained and initially questioned by prosecutor Vinko Fodich. He was later taken to Curico, 125 miles south of the capital, where the case is being investigated. Judge Carlos Gutierrez ruled that he will remain in custody until Saturday.
The case dates back to May 2003 when authorities discovered a network that forged auto sale invoices to illegally collect value-added-tax refunds. Initially, investigators indicated that the gang had swindled over half a million US dollars in illegal refunds.


Pinochet Hiriart's arrest coincides with an announcement by Chile's internal revenue service, or SII, that it has begun an audit of his father's tax returns after a U.S. Senate investigating panel determined that the former strongman had several secret million-dollar accounts in Washington's Riggs Bank.

A scandal was touched off in 1989 when it was revealed he had received three checks totaling 3 million US dollars in commissions from the Army - at that time headed by his father - for allegedly serving as middleman in the purchase of a rifle factory.
The case prompted a legislative investigation and a suspicious mobilization of troops, but in 1994 then-President Eduardo Frei ordered the attorney general's office to end the probe "for reasons of state".

Pinochet Hiriart caused another stir when his wife shot him in the leg and shortly after divorced him, but not before he had put all his assets - allegedly acquired in the late 1970s in the United States - in her name.
more
http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=4022