Chile Widens Pinochet Tax Fraud Probe

[Say_What]

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SANTIAGO, Chile - Chile's tax agency is broadening its investigation into charges of tax fraud by Gen. Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites), combing over more than 20 years of financial statements submitted by the former dictator, according to a report Tuesday.

Chile's International Tax Service has said it was investigating whether Pinochet secretly kept multimillion-dollar accounts at a bank in Washington from 1998 to 2002. The broader investigation reported by Santiago daily El Mercurio would extend back to 1980, when Pinochet formally assumed the presidency.

A tax service spokesman refused to confirm the report, citing the ongoing investigation.

Judicial authorities are looking into the source of Pinochet's wealth after a U.S. Senate committee reported that he held up to $8 million in undisclosed accounts at Riggs Bank.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&ncid=734&e=4&u=/ap/20050215/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/chile_pinochet

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Background on the 'Washington bank' so cleverly unnamed in the above article. Check the Bush connection to Riggs in the article.

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Riggs Bank fined over Pinochet ties

WASHINGTON — Riggs Bank agreed to pay a $16 million fine yesterday after pleading guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by hiding transfers of millions of dollars in accounts controlled by Chilean despot Augusto Pinochet and top officials of Equatorial Guinea.

The bank, one of the oldest and most prestigious in the nation's capital, set up accounts under deceptive or phony names, ignored requirements to file federal reports on transfers of significant sums and helped establish dummy corporations in the Bahamas, where banking laws are notoriously lax, federal investigators said.

U.S Attorney Kenneth Wainstein described Riggs' failings as "long-term and systemic misconduct," at a news conference after the court hearing.

In addition to the fine, Riggs agreed to five years of probation and to cooperate in ongoing investigations of former Riggs officers.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2002162985_riggs28.html

[Carl Brennan]

1. Poppy spoke in support of Pinochet

a few years ago when the nasty old fart was threatened with charges by an international court. I wish I had a link.

[Say_What]

2. This has been repeated over the years... Letelier assassination, etc...

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...Throughout his long political career, George H.W. Bush routinely sided with tyrants, such as Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet whose government not only repressed dissidents inside Chile but sent “death squads” into Europe and even to Washington to hunt down and kill political adversaries.

For instance, in September 1976, while the senior George Bush was CIA director, Pinochet’s assassins audaciously traveled to Washington and blew up a car carrying Chile’s former foreign minister Orlando Letelier. Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, an American co-worker riding in the car, were killed.

Though possessing information implicating Pinochet’s dictatorship in the terrorist attack, Bush’s CIA covered for Chile’s secret services by denying publicly that the Pinochet regime was responsible and pointing investigators off in false directions. Despite the CIA’s misleading statements, the FBI eventually did break the case, though Pinochet and his top assistants were never held accountable.

Even two decades later, when Pinochet was detained in London facing an extradition request from a Spanish prosecutor investigating the murder of Spanish citizens in Chile, the elder George Bush was still fronting for his old friend. Bush wrote a letter to British authorities urging them to ignore the Spanish extradition request. Following Bush’s intervention, Pinochet was allowed to fly back to Chile, rather than face human rights charges in Spain.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/012605.html