Augusto Pinochet signs decree appointing new ministers, Santiago, Chile, 1983Marcelo Montecino (FlickrVision)
The final chapter of a long investigation that spanned nearly 20 years concluded this week after Chilean justice recovered three fixed deposits worth 3 billion pesos, about $3.4 million, from the balance of the money seized from Augusto Pinochet in 2004 The Riggs case was reported by the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio on Wednesday.
In August 2004, the Chilean judiciary opened a judicial investigation against the dictator over funds from the state treasury that he had secretly transferred to various Riggs bank accounts in the United States. The case was uncovered thanks to the investigations of the US Senate, which discovered suspicious movements in some accounts of what was then considered one of the most prestigious banking institutions in Washington.
The investigation found that Pinochet’s total assets amounted to $21.3 million, of which $17.8 million were of illicit origin. However, the court’s final decision involved significantly less money. First, the judge in charge of the case, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, current minister of the Supreme Court, ordered in the first instance the confiscation of about five million dollars belonging to the Pinochet family, including bank accounts, cars and real estate. In June 2017, the Santiago Court of Appeal overturned this judgment and ordered the return of the assets. It was only in 2018 that the Supreme Court changed this ruling and ordered the transfer of about $1.6 million to the state treasury.
Now, at the end of the six-month period, the last confiscated funds have been transferred to the current account of the Administration of Justice (CAPJ), without Pinochet’s heirs claiming them as required by law. The $3.4 million is money that was not part of the seizure ordered by the Supreme Court in 2018, when the highest court ordered the Pinochet family to transfer the $1.6 million to the state treasury. The ruling also found that the dictator’s children were “third parties responsible” for the theft of public funds.
The decision for these funds to end up in the hands of the judiciary was made several years ago by the State Defense Council (CDE), the body that legally represents the interests of the Chilean state. This was requested by the Minister of the Capital Court of Appeal, Guillermo de la Barra, who approved the request in 2020 on the basis of Article 677 of the Chilean Code of Criminal Procedure, which establishes that money made available to other courts is not subject to the Seizure is made or is asserted within the specified time limits will be handed over to the CAPJ authority for this purpose.
But the transmission took a while. The defense of Lucía Hiriart, widow of Augusto Pinochet, who died in 2021, filed an appeal on the grounds that she was no longer the owner of the confiscated assets, which was rejected by Minister De la Barra. The Santiago Court of Appeal confirmed its decision in December 2021. The judgment became final in August 2022, but the delivery of the funds could not be completed due to precautionary measures imposed by the 7th Civil Court of Santiago in response to a lawsuit filed by the CDE. Only now, almost 17 years after the death of Pinochet, who died in 2006, has the verdict become final.