Chilean Judge Orders Probe Of Pinochet’s Foreign Bank Accounts

by Leroy Baker, Tax-News.com, New York

29 July 2005

The judge investigating the tax affairs of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has sent requests for information to several countries where he is thought to have held secret bank accounts.

Sources close to the investigation have revealed to the Reuters news agency that Judge Sergio Munoz has ordered the investigation of accounts held in the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Columbia, Germany, Panama, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

According to a recent court filing, Judge Munoz suspects that Pinochet, who seized power in a coup in 1973 and ruled until 1990, and his family have hidden up to $17 million in more than 100 foreign accounts, many of which are likely to have been held under false names.

In June, Pinochet learned that he has been stripped of the immunity from prosecution afforded to him as a former President. The former dictator is now likely to face charges of tax evasion on millions of dollars stored in overseas accounts, making false declarations, breaching an international assets embargo, and using false passports.

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