The Public Ministry has formalized Corpesca S.A. as a corporate entity under investigation for alleged payments that an ex-manager of the company would have made to Chilean legislators during the Fisheries Act procedure.
The company was notified at a hearing held on Monday in Santiago on the investigation that will seek to determine whether when the facts occurred it had the preventive measures required by Act 20.393 to prevent the crime of bribery allegedly committed by its former manager Francisco Mujica.
According to the Public Ministry, between 2009 and 2013, Corpesca would have paid money to MPs Marta Isasi and Jaime Orpis, amounting to CLP 231 million (about USD 345,000) in total for them to defend its interests given the changes that were processed to the Fisheries Act in Congress.
Through a statement, the company said it did have the security measures required by Act 20.393 and pledged its cooperation in the investigation.
“The company reiterates that it has provided the Public Ministry the background revealing it had such measures and thus, it gave effect to the provisions of the Act,” pointed out Corpesca in its public statement.
“Similarly, it has given full cooperation to clarify these facts that have been released, to which the company as such is absolutely unrelated, so it expects to exercise its right of defense timely,” it added.
Prosecutor Julio Contardo, who heads the investigation with his counterpart Ximena Chong, said that Corpesca “did not adopt, implement, manage or oversee a crime prevention program but it also showed unwillingness to do so, limiting itself to contracting the design of a model and the formal and nominal appointment of a person in charge of crime prevention, which was ineffective to meet the supervision levels.”
The prosecutor explained that the penalties provided in the act of criminal liability of corporate entities range “from fines to the dissolution, through the loss of certain benefits or the inability to settle contracts with the State,” according to the complaint.
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