 |
| Chile - Children of President Sebastián Piñera |
About
Sebastián Piñera launched a credit card company in the 1970s, and served in Chile’s Senate for most of the 1990s, before running for president twice. The Bancard founder is worth an estimated $2.8 billion.
Piñera was first elected president in 2010, and he won his second term in 2018. Chilean law bars sitting presidents from running for consecutive terms.
As a candidate in 2018, Piñera promised that he and his family would put all of their holdings into blind trusts, ceding control of the management of their assets.
But the trusts applied only to his family’s Chilean holdings, and not to offshore companies owned by his children. Those companies held investments worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Chilean law mandates that any person domiciled in or a resident of Chile is subject to taxes on income earned anywhere in the world.
In 2017, the Chilean Center for Investigative Reporting (CIPER) reported that Piñera opened two of those offshore companies, but later transferred ownership to his children.
Political Career
- President (2018-present, 2010-2014)
Leaked Details in the Pandora Papers
The Pandora Papers reveal Piñera’s involvement in several offshore deals.
His businesses have provided all of the funding for two companies registered in the British Virgin Islands in 1997 and 2000. One of his sons became a director for one of those companies before it was closed in 2018.
A Chilean mining company in which Piñera’s children owned a 33.3% stake, used a BVI shell company to sell their shares to his close friend’s BVI shell company.
The deal, made in December 2010, nearly nine months into Piñera’s first term as president, was for $138 million, to be paid in three installments. But the sales contract contained a contingency:
The last payment, $9.9 million due Dec.11, 2011, would not be made if any steps were taken that would “irrevocably” prevent a mining project under consideration — for example, the creation of a nature preserve.
Four months before that deal was made, Piñera stopped the construction of a thermoelectric plant in an environmentally sensitive area near the proposed mine, saying that he wanted to protect a “nature sanctuary”. However, despite pressure from environmental groups, Piñera did not put any such protections in place. It’s unclear whether the nature preserve would have scuttled the proposed mine, or if the final payment went through. The proposed mine is still pending approval.
Just days before Piñera began his second presidential term in 2018, documents show that one BVI company connected to him, Parque Chiloé Overseas Inc. merged with the Chilean company, Parque Chiloé SA, and were subsequently absorbed by another Chilean firm, Inversiones Odisea, in which his four children are shareholders.
Nicolas Noguera, who manages the family’s investments, told ICIJ that Piñera did not take part in, nor was he informed of, any matter related to the mining project sale and that currently, neither President Piñera nor any any member of his immediate family control any company incorporated in the BVI.
Secrecy Broker
At the heart of the Pandora Papers are 14 offshore firms that help clients establish companies in secrecy jurisdictions. This profile draws on leaked data from these providers:
1. OMC
Overseas Management Co., Inc, or OMC, is headquartered in Panama and provides a variety of offshore services to wealthy clients — and to 21 politicians and public officials identified in the Pandora Papers. Here are some of the top political figures involved.
Comments
Post a Comment