A cuatro semanas de que Informe Especial (TVN) desnudara el abultado patrimonio acumulado por el ex comandante en jefe del Ejército, Juan Miguel Fuente-Alba Poblete (2010-2014), su situación sigue oscura. El miércoles 25 de mayo el fiscal José Morales lo sometió a un interrogatorio de cinco horas en calidad de imputado. Allí, Fuente-Alba debió explicar el origen de los dineros con los que en los últimos diez años adquirió inmuebles y automóviles de lujo, acumulando bienes que versiones de prensa calculan en más de mil millones de pesos.
Fuente-Alba has insisted that all its assets were acquired with income legally obtained, but has not managed to clear the suspicions.And these increased by refusing for the second time to attend a investigative commission of the Chamber of Deputies, on his advice.His defender is Alejandro Espinoza, the same lawyer of former senator Pablo Longueira in the accusation of alleged bribery and other illicit investigating the Public Ministry.
In the army they are aware of the severity of the accusations that weigh on the former commander in chief.And one of the measures adopted was to freeze his participation in the Institutional Advisory Committee, composed of former chief and civil commanders.
Virgilo Cartoni
Tanto el Ministerio Público como la Corte Marcial –que también lo investiga y pidió antecedentes al SII– han enfocado las pesquisas sobre su probable “enriquecimiento ilícito” en el sistema de compras del Ejército que el general (r) debió tener bajo control. En esa indagatoria, ha vuelto a emerger un viejo amigo de Fuente-Alba: Virgilo Cartoni Maldonado, el comerciante de armas predilecto del Ejército.
A figure is enough to graph the importance of cardboard.If the army records indicate that every year that institution allocates about US $ 200 million for acquisitions, those same accounts reveal that 25% of these purchases are made to signatures that Cartoni represents, thereby obtaining succulent commissions.
There are many who do not explain why Cartoni has been unscathed from all investigations for fraud in the purchases of military equipment.And this, because for at least ten years he appears involved in accusations that have nurtured several files.
Es probable que los privilegios que le han permitido a Virgilo Cartoni convertir sus oficinas en Chile y en Miami en un negocio infalible, estén relacionados con un lazo familiar que no se conocía. Su única hermana, Magali Cartoni Maldonado, está casada desde 1985 con Eugenio Ponce Lerou, actual presidente de Soquimich y hermano del ex yerno de Pinochet, Julio Ponce Lerou.
Given the confidence deposited by the Pinochet family in Julio Ponce Lerou, which remained intact after he separated from Verónica Pinochet Hiriart, it is likely that this family link has facilitated cardboard to penetrate the redoubt of the army weapons trade.
The investigation of the "Riggs" on the fortune that Pinochet hidden abroad, revealed that the arms trade was in the hands of a small group of officers from the Pinochet environment.Both he and that group benefited until 1997 from the large commissions paid by suppliers through a network of offshore societies.
La relación de Virgilo Cartoni con su hermana es tan estrecha que fue junto a ella que, en marzo de 1984, inició su primera actividad empresarial: una distribuidora de pinturas inscrita como Cartoni Maldonado Hermanos (nombre de fantasía: Piroval) y en la que cada uno invirtió $600 mil. Poco después, Cartoni pidió una solicitud de marca para su nuevo rubro: ropa de guagua, la que fabricaba y distribuía bajo el nombre Ninna Nanna.
Cartoni changed it very quickly, and from the bus of the bus, he went to the trade of armament.In 1992 he created the marketer, exporter and importer C. and M. (Cym), a society with which he would gradually capture much of the purchases of the army.
El pilar de los negocios de Virgilo Cartoni es la representación de medio centenar de empresas de pertrechos militares. A ello suma la maestría con que maneja sus nexos con el mundo castrense, lo que le permite conocer en detalle y con anticipación la trama de sus adquisiciones. Para ello, recluta a altos oficiales en retiro como sus principales ejecutivos.
Nadie discute hoy el dominio que ejerce Virgilo Cartoni Maldonado en el mercado de las armas y pertrechos. Si hay algo que lo caracteriza, es la reserva con que maneja sus contactos y utilidades. La estructura de sus negocios incluye una red de sociedades constituidas en Panamá, uno de los paraísos fiscales favoritos de quienes buscan ocultar sus flujos de dinero. CIPER encontró ocho de sus sociedades panameñas, las que se suman a otras domiciliadas en Florida.
At least three links join Fuente-Alba and Cartoni.The first is friendship.An ancient relationship that was based after Cartoni left the military career early (being a lieutenant).In the army there were two of his cousins: the generals (r): Patricio Cartoni Viale and Alessandro Cartoni Pruzzo.amkeys coincided with Source-Alba in the High Command in 2005.
That relationship has been transferred to their children-Roberto Fuente-Alba Pinochet and Francesco Cartoni Castilla-who strengthened ties when both agreed working for the Concha and Toro vineyard.Although Roberto Fuente-Alba has already left that job, his former vineyard colleagues remember him for his luxurious cars.A fact that is not banal: one of the edges investigated by the Prosecutor's Office and by the Minister in Visit of the Martial Court, Omar Astudillo, are the numerous purchases of the luxury cars of General (R) Fuente-Alba, of his wife and his wife andtheir children, and the unusual transfer of real estate between them and their father.
The second link was revealed by a special report: a luxurious Audi car that the weapons seller bought the General (R) in 2010, when he just settled at the Chief Command.Shortly after, Fuente-Alba would be hard to buy with Army Days and for its exclusive use a Mercedes Benz S500L, model 2011.
El tercer nexo que une a Fuente-Alba y Cartoni, lo descubrió CIPER. Porque la relación entre ambos se manifestó apenas el general (r) tomó posesión del mando en marzo de 2010. Fue entonces que nombró como auditor general del Ejército al abogado Marcelo Felipe Cibié Bluth, quien tiene una sociedad con Virgilo Cartoni en Miami desde 2005.
Strictly speaking, Cibié Bluth could not assume as an auditor without being promoted to general.As the ascent did not occur, Fuente-Alba appointed him a substitute auditor.And that was how the lawyer integrated the Supreme Court into various opportunities to judge causes of military jurisdiction.And this, despite the fact that his father, lawyer Marcelo Cibié Paolinelli, defended General Eugenio Covarrubias Valenzuela and General Fernando Torres Silva, both convicted in August 2010 for their participation in the kidnapping and murder of the chemist of the Dina, EugenioBerrios.Defenses that were paid with army funds.
Cibié Bluth se convirtió así en asesor personal del comandante en jefe, como el mismo abogado lo ha descrito en su perfil de Linkedin. A fines de 2010, el hombre de confianza del general (r) Fuente-Alba presentó su expediente de retiro. Para entonces era también hombre de confianza de Virgilo Cartoni, pues ambos integran desde 2005 la sociedad Caleci LLC, domiciliada en Miami.
According to the records of the state of Florida, Caleci LLC is an active commercial entity in which Robinson J. Leiva also participates.In ancient army suppliers records, a person with this name appears, but Ciper could not verify that he is the same partner of Cartoni and Cibié.
In the years in which Fuente-Alba was commander in chief, anonymous letters of alleged military who accused him of having "abandoned" the uniformed officers imprisoned by human rights judgments.They appeared the first complaints about the inexplicable growth of his assets.As proof of the proximity of Fuente-Alba with Cartoni, it was claimed that the then commander in chief had appointed Marcelo Cibié in the Army Audit, whose wife, lawyer Vesna Lolic, provided professional services to the Cartoni company.
La vida legal de la empresa de Virgilo Cartoni que representa a grandes fabricantes de armas y de equipos y tecnología de uso militar, se inició el 4 de septiembre de 1992, con $6 millones de capital y un socio: el piloto comercial Amilcar Mehech Dall’Osso (quien más tarde abandonaría la empresa para formar otra del mismo rubro). Ese día entró en vigencia CyM (Comercializadora, Exportadora e Importadora C. Y M.), la que inscribió otros dos nombres de fantasía, aparte de CyM: Coeximport CyM y C&M World Enterprise Corporation Limited. Solo dos meses más tarde la transformarían en sociedad anónima cerrada.La indagación de CIPER arroja en este punto una primera incógnita: ¿en qué fecha inició Cartoni su negocio de armamentos? Porque uno de los nombres de fantasía inscritos en el Diario Oficial para su “nueva” empresa CyM –C & M World Enterprise Corporation Limited – CIPER lo encontró ya registrado por Cartoni, pero dos años antes (1990), en una sociedad que él mismo constituyó en Miami.
No solo Miami fue el destino que escogió Cartoni para asegurar el secreto del flujo de las cuantiosas comisiones de sus proveedores. De allí que no sea extraño que Virgilo Cartoni viaje periódicamente a Panamá, paraíso fiscal en el que CIPER encontró ocho sociedades constituidas por el empresario de armamentos, a través de las cuales canalizaría las comisiones que le pagan las empresas extranjeras que representa.
Estas sociedades fueron creadas entre 2005 y 2014 a través del bufete panameño Arosemena Attorneys & Bussines Consulting Group:
As has been said, the same name of the last society had already been used by Cartoni to constitute another company, but in Miami.And precisely with that name CYM is presented in Chile, as seen on its website.
Los directores de C & M World Enterprises Corp. en Miami son Cartoni y su esposa, Ana María Castilla. Y el presidente es el empresario argentino Horacio O Peiro, cuyo principal negocio es el vitivinícola (“Antigal” es la marca del vino que vende), y cuyas oficinas en Miami están ubicadas en la misma dirección donde funciona la empresa de Cartoni: 8356 NY 30 Terrace, Doral, FL 33122 US.El mismo domicilio registra otra sociedad vinculada a Peiro: Southern Vines Inc.
La misma dirección en Miami exhibe otra de las sociedades que Cartoni constituyó en esa ciudad de Estados Unidos en octubre de 2004: Los Andes Group, LLC. CIPER encontró en Miami otras dos sociedades de Cartoni: la ya mencionada Caleci LLC (en la que participa Marcelo F. Cibié) y TLC Suplier & Trading, Inc.
In the official records of an important American armament company, Weapon-Clear, it is indicated that its products are distributed through Cym and provides three directions: that of Miami, and that corresponds to the same domicile of Peiro and Cartoni in that city;another in Viña del Mar, Middle East Street 831, Office 704 (Olympus Building);and in Santiago, Av. Las Condes 7345.
El grupo de agentes de ventas reclutado por Virgilo Cartoni son, en su mayoría, ex oficiales de Ejército. De lunes a viernes se dan cita a primera hora de la mañana en las oficinas de avenida Las Condes 7345. Se dividen en áreas relacionadas con su especialidad militar, lo que asegura su contacto directo con oficiales activos de su misma competencia. De esa forma, consiguen información sobre las compras que se están preparando y hacen lobby para que las condiciones de las licitaciones sean favorables para CyM.
Each sales agent processes the documentation required for tenders.But in those offices there are very few records.Almost nothing.Four years ago Cartoni taught instructions to eliminate all the information stored on the computers, so each agent must handle their information on hard drives or flash drive.In the company's headquarters there is never information or correspondence.
The agents obtain a fixed remuneration of around one million pesos per month and a part of the commission that Cym charges each time it closes a business and that borders 16%.A “small” purchase of US $ 5 million, for example, can leave Cym a commission of US $ 500 thousand (about $ 337.5 million) and the agent about US $ 80 thousand (about $ 54 million).
Those who know the methods established by Cartoni in their company, say that when Cartoni must pay a commission, which preferably occurs at the beginning of the month, leaves the bundle of cash on cash on the desks of sales agents who managed to close the business.A formula to encourage the rest.
The executive flat of CYM has been nourished by senior officers who leave the army, which ensures privileged links with the institution.An example of this is his current general manager, Colonel (R) Pedro Pablo Bustos Valderrama, whom Cartoni recruited when he had to leave the army after the counter revealed his time through the CNI, in November 2003. At that time BustosHe worked as a military attaché at the UN.
Another of the senior executives recruited by Cartoni is the son of General Aureliano Tello, who was a director of Army Instruction.Eduardo Tello Jerez was also official and left the army to work in CYM, where he became head of the office in Miami.Married to the daughter of General (R) Patricio Varela Saldías (from whom he later separated), his relations with the army kept them at the highest level.In fact, in March 2015 he appears as an advisor to the High Command of the Army.
Another of those recruited by Cartoni is Colonel (R) Hugo Barría Rogers.He signed it after in 2002 he integrated an evaluation commission of the purchase of helicopters that CYM sold.According to a version of The counter, Barría Rogers already worked on CYM when the company closed the controversial sale of helicopters.
General (R) Hernán Ramírez Hald is another former high -officer used by Cartoni: he directed the Military Industries and Engineering Command and was involved as an accomplice in the murder of Tucapel Jiménez.
Among the firms that make up the portfolio of companies represented by CYM are the German Krauss Maffei Wegmann (KMW), which markets Leopard tanks and armored transports Marder;The German-Suiziza Ruag Defense, who sold to the Army 24 self-propelled obuses M109 of second hand;Isarelí Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Spike anti -tank missile supplier;the European Airbus Helicopters, which has sold helicopters to the Army Aviation Brigade (Bave);The Brazilian CBM, ammunition manufacturer, and the Belgian OIP Systems Sensors, which markets night viewers.
Although Cartoni was already the owner of an outrageous position in the purchases of the army when Fuente-Alba settled in 2010 at the head of the institution, that dominant role was consolidated under his command.And this, despite the fact that in that market it was believed that Cartoni would pay a cost for the serious irregularities detected in a purchase of helicopters in 2009, in which it acted as an intermediary, and that it meant a disbursement of US $ 170 million (see the report ofThe counter that revealed the irregularities).
None of that happened.An example of how commercial relations between the Army and Cym under the command of Fuente-Alba were developed, is the tender to buy “combat boots”.The process took place in October 2012 and CYM was awarded with an offer of $ 594.3 million for 15 thousand pairs of coyote boots for temperate and cold weather.When the purchase order was dispatched, VAT was added, so the amount stretched to $ 707.3 million.
Six months later, in May 2013, General Miguel Muñoz Farías, force support commander, signed a contract addendum, in which he not only extended the deadline for receiving footwear (climate problems would have affected their transport from the United States), but without explaining reasons added another 4,500 pairs of boots, so that the payment to Cym amounted to $ 913.7 million.
In six months the purchase of boots increased by 25% and the price to be paid had a jump of $ 206 million.
To the military boots that Cartoni sold to the army in the period of source-albAn amount of US $ 16.5 million.The Army Procurement Headquarters began the tender in July 2012. Six months later, the day it should be awarded, something happened.
What happened on January 4, 2013, the Mercury said a year later.Again it was the force support commander, General Miguel Muñoz, who took out the Master Charter: invalidated the tender.Administrative errors, he said.A new process opened.But the problem was not over.In December 2013, Fuente-Alba received the resource of Theon Sensors, accusing a series of modifications in the process that favored the cardboard company: OIP Systems Sensors.
The Greek company Theon Sensors, manufacturer of night viewers and supplier of six NATO countries, also requested all the backups of the tests carried out in the invalidated evaluation.The result was clear: Theon must have been winning.CYM appeared in fourth place.
The accumulation of factors that changed in the process of the second tender for the benefit of Cartoni - among them, the decrease in the score assigned to the amount of the offer, item in which Cym offered a greater price - climbed.And he arrived at the Minister of Defense of the time, Rodrigo Hinzpeter.But the process continued with a maximum award date: May 30, 2014. That is, with a new government.
The claim of Theon Sensors, to which another company that participated in the tender was added, reached the Comptroller.Another of the main accusations against Cartoni was that he had violated the protocols when he met with one of the evaluators during the process: Colonel Alex Gluzman, well -known of Cartoni.
The meeting was actually made.But the defense of Cartoni, assumed by Clara Szcaranski, former president of the State Defense Council (CDE) and current counselor of the agency, was that Cartoni had not spoken at any time about the tender of the viewers, since that purchase was beingmanaged directly by the Belgian company OIP Systems Sensors, even if he represents it in Chile.And that at that meeting with Gluzman, he only accompanied a “protocol visit” to Mohamed Chaara, representative of the businessuphotonis Netherlands R.V., which coincidentally manufactures the main device of the OIP System Sensors' night viewers.
Although it seems surprising, Cartoni also left unharmed from the ruling of the Comptroller (see opinion).And in May 2015, the contract for US $ 16.5 million for night viewers was awarded to the company OIP Sensors, represented by Cartoni.The amount of your commission is unknown.
Many of the purchases that favor Cartoni are forged in the Army Procurement Headquarters (JAE), which in turn depends on the force support command (CAF).It is there where tenders are designed and contracts are made.Its director was for years Colonel Luis Reyes Álvarez, now in Retiro, who was involved in the investigation for the payment of nonexistent purchases in the Army Aviation Brigade (Bave), which involved the irregular disbursement of about US $ 3 million.In 2013, during the Command in Chief of Fuente-Alba, Colonel Reyes was appointed deputy director of Famae.
Clara Szcaranski
Among the latest commercial operations between Cartoni and the Army that have been questioned is the refaction of Puma helicopters in Romania for US $ 20 million, in circumstances that several specialists estimate that it was more convenient to acquire new units.
Cym has also operated in the field of the sale of medical supplies, a niche that entered under the name of Insumed to provide the new Military Hospital.After being sold by Cartoni to two army officers, he recovered it in 2001. That same year the Comptroller denounced that he was paid for the articles that dispatched that health center.
The investigation of the Martial Court to Fuente-Alba is a branch of the fraud known as “Milicogate”, investigated by the journalist Mauricio Weibel and published by The Clinic.Millions of pesos from the reserved copper funds for the purchase of military supplies were paid against false or adulterated invoices for services that were never provided.For that illicit a colonel and four non -commissioned officers are imprisoned.
The colonel arrested is Clovis Montero.The special report report released on May 1 disclosed the recording of a dialogue between Montero and the then general and head of Army Finance, Jozo Santic.In that conversation, Colonel Montero uncovered the hardest blow that General (R) Juan Miguel Fuente-Alba has: He informed Santic that the commercial manager of the Klassic Car, Tomás Tupper, had documents that showed that Source-Alba had been part of a fraudulent scheme for the purchase and sale of luxury vehicles.
On seven occasions, Montero said, General Fuente-Alba had acquired Audi cars at a cost price and had returned them with little mileage, colluded with automotive personnel, so that they were resembled at a commercial price.Source-Alba, as Montero pointed out, stayed with the difference.
La investigación de Informe Especial detectó que desde 2005 en adelante, incluyendo su periodo como comandante en jefe, Fuente-Alba compró y vendió, a veces con escasos meses de diferencia, numerosos vehículos de lujo: un Audi A4, un Audi A6, dos Audi Q7, dos Audi RS6 Turbo (uno de ellos fue el que después compró Virgilo Cartoni), en 2014 adquirió un Mercedes Benz que vendió a los tres meses y luego adquirió otro vehículo de la misma marca que vendió a los ocho meses. Actualmente, tiene un Mercedes Benz 2016 y una Grand Cherokee 2015.
Most of the sales of vehicles made by Fuente-Alba were made in the Klassic Car automotive, which was benefited by the army with an acquisition for direct treatment when General (R) exercised the institutional leadership.In 2013, the Army bought Klassic Car, without tender, a Wagon Volkswagen Touareg 3.0 year 2014 for $ 29.9 million (see the purchase order).In 2012, the Army had already acquired another Volkswagen Touareg, but through a tender, to which only the offer of Klassic Car was presented, which was awarded the sale at $ 30.6 million.
On May 26 there was a new replica for the revelations of special report.The Mutuality of the Army and Aviation reported that it was decided to remove General Jozo Santic from the finance management of the institution.
The Prosecutor's Office has put the magnifying glass in these car sales and in the real estate acquired by the former commander in chief.The special report investigation revealed that, in 2013, when he still exercised the army, he bought Undepartment on Kennedy Avenue for $ 125 million and his wife acquired another in the same building for $ 123 million.In 2014 he bought a root good at the Chicureo Brisas for $ 480 million and in 2015 an apartment in Cerro Colorado (Las Condes) for $ 150 million.In just three years, General (R) made real estate investments totaling $ 878 million.A very distant figure of the $ 4 million that he won monthly in his pinnacle of his military career.
