Although the order of the factors does not alter the product, which, unlike what happened in the Municipality of San Ignacio last Friday, in Ñiquén, the arrest of the mayor, Miguel Pino, was first controlled and then the order was given to raiding the consistorial offices, could mean that once the community chief was arrested by the Economic Crimes Brigade and taken to the PDI Arauco Barracks, it is a clear indication that Pino delivered key information to the Prosecutor’s Office.
The mayor turned himself in voluntarily around 8 in the morning to the PDI. About him, the Prosecutor’s Office has the antecedent that he would have accepted $6 million as a bribe by businessman Rodrigo Carmona, an amount that he had to share with his public administrator, Carlos Fernández.
Despite the fact that the prosecutor in the case, Nadia Espinoza, cited a press point for yesterday at 3:30 p.m., it was suspended at the last minute through a statement explaining that it was due to “a major contingency that arose.”
For this reason, it is not ruled out that for today the list of detainees for this case will add new names.
The “current accounts” case involves the financial advisory company Gestión Global, owned by businessman Rodrigo Carmona (in pretrial detention), winning tenders through bribery to advise municipalities to find the banking entities that deliver the highest yields for their accounts currents.
The first raid was carried out in the Municipality of San Ignacio, last Friday, when Carmona, his collaborator, Rodrigo Sandoval, were arrested; the chief of staff, Edgardo Suazo, the director of Health, Krysler Monroy and the mayor César Figueroa.
Sources close to the investigation told La Discusión that within the “Ñiquén edge” of the case, it was Fernández himself who handed over the information that involved his mayor; and something similar happened with the chief of staff of the municipality of San Ignacio, Edgardo Suazo, who within his statement placed the municipal director of Health, Krylser Monroy, as the one who made the links between Carmona and the mayor of San Ignacio, Cesar Figueroa.
“On him, the Prosecutor’s Office practically did not provide any background that linked him to these events. If he is charged today, it is because another of the detainees involved him at the last minute in his statement to avoid major precautionary measures,” he said in relation to Edgardo Suazo, chief of staff for the mayor of San Ignacio (César Figueroa), who despite being photographed receiving a briefcase with money for bribery (destined for the mayor), he was left with the precautionary measure of total house arrest.
Defense study appeal
Carmona was formalized for bribery, frustrated fraud and violation of secrecy; while his collaborator, the journalist and former councilor of Chillán, Rodrigo Sandoval, was formalized for crimes of bribery.
For bribery and tax fraud, the mayor Figueroa and Krysler Monrroy were formalized.
All of them are with the precautionary measure of preventive detention.
At least on the part of the latter, his defender, Rodrigo Vera Lama, explained that “there are five days to file an appeal of the precautionary measures in the Court of Appeals and obviously I will do so, since – I insist – except for the statement of another defendant who at the last minute, it places him in these facts, regardless of the accusations made by the Prosecutor’s Office, specifically, the Public Ministry does not have any type of evidence, nor intercepted calls, nor copies of emails or WhatsApp, nor has he been photographed in irregular situations or anything that is really indicative of their participation in any crime.”
Regarding Mayor Figueroa, the regional defender, Marco Montero, who assumed his representation, also announced that he was studying this possibility, because “the precautionary measure of preventive detention seems totally excessive, according to the information presented by the Prosecutor’s Office.”
The same situation was raised by the lawyer Giovanni Gotelli, who together with the lawyer Carlos Astorga, represents Carmona and Sandoval.
Finally, the lawyer Guillermo Cantín, representative of the mayor of Ñiquén, Miguel Pino, chose not to speak to the press before tomorrow’s formalization.
