Chilean opposition lawmakers have launched impeachment proceedings against President Sebastián Piñera over new details about the sale of a mining company revealed in the Pandora Papers investigation.
Chile’s national prosecutor’s office announced Friday that it would open a criminal investigation against President Sebastián Piñera following revelations concerning his business affairs in the Pandora Papers.
Investigators said the probe would focus on the 2010 sale by the Piñera family of a stake in a Chilean mining project and, depending upon the findings, could lead to bribery and tax-related charges.
The prosecutor’s office said that a prior investigation related to the business deal didn’t include a contract, written in English and signed in the British Virgin Islands, that was revealed in the Pandora Papers.
The Pandora Papers revelations, first published days ago by ICIJ partners, the Chilean Center for Investigative Reporting (CIPER) and Labot, revealed that in December 2010, nine months into Piñera’s first term as president, a Chilean mining company, Dominga, partially owned by his children made a $152 million deal with another company belonging to one of Piñera’s closest friends, Carlos Alberto Délano.
Source: Brenda Meidna and Malia Politzer/ICIJ, 8th of October 2021. https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/chilean-president-sebastian-pinera-to-be-criminally-investigated-due-to-pandora-papers-revelations/