Jen Ross
Independent (U.K.)
October 2, 2004

Santiago: Tax authorities in Chile have filed a formal lawsuit against the former dictator Augusto Pinochet, alleging massive fraud and tax evasion through offshore accounts held at the Riggs National Bank, based in Washington DC. Chile’s internal tax service alleges that General Pinochet -who underwent two hours of psychiatric and neurological tests this week to determine his fitness to stand trial – filed “false or maliciously incomplete tax declarations.” If found guilty he could face up to five years in prison. A U.S. Senate report said Riggs took pains to hide the money for General Pinochet, especially during the late 1990s when a Spanish judge issued an international warrant for his arrest on human rights charges and tried to freeze his assets. “Some of the most ignoble people in history have been caught on financial matters,” noted Errol Mendes, an international law professor and anti-corruption expert. “Al Capone, for example. It’s little known, but he was finally put away on tax evasion instead of how many people he killed in his life as a gangster.” The 88-year-old General Pinochet is also the defendant in hundreds of different human rights cases after he was recently stripped by the Chilean Supreme Court of his immunity from prosecution.