Chile: New Details About President Piñera’s Offshore Companies

On Monday, a new Pandora Papers (PP) publication revealed details about the corporate network that Chilean President Sebastian Piñera's children have established in various tax-havens.

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The investigation uncovered how Piñera transferred his businesses to his children to avoid possible conflicts of interest after becoming President.

In the documents, his four children acknowledge that their assets in the British Virgin Islands are donations they received from their father. It is not yet clear whether they paid taxes on such money transfer. In Chile, taxation for this kind of donation can reach up to 25 percent.

The Piñera sons offshore assets would come from the sale of their father’s businesses such as the credit card company Transbank, the airline LAN, and the television channel Chilevision.

On Sunday, the Pandora Papers had already exposed Pinera for the sale of the Minera Dominga, a controversial mining project.

When Piñera and his family sold their shares to businessman Carlos Delano, they did so with a US$14 million contract signed in Chile and another US$138 million agreement signed in the British Virgin Islands.

The payment was designed to be made in three installments. Before making the last one, Delano asked Piñeira that the mining project site not be declared as part of an environmental protection zone. When Piñera became President, he fulfilled this condition.