Monday, February 18 begins the province meeting, the meeting that brings together all the priests of the society of Jesus in Chile in the precinct known as the Loyola House, located in the commune of father Hurtado. At the meeting – which lasts three days – the provincial of the order, Cristian the field Simonetti, is scheduled to deliver an annual account to the 145 priests attending. Field this year finishes her period started in 2013 and, as it transpired, in his exhibition will emphasize that one of its goals is to finish the previous investigation charge against Renato Poblete, the emblematic Chaplain of the Hogar de Cristo who died in 2010.
The work performed by the criminal lawyer, Waldo Bown is key for this purpose. Just received the background on 9 January, the provincial of the Jesuits communicated with him and three days later announced that an investigation against Poblete opened. Then, the religious institution acknowledged in a statement the complaint and left Bown mail to those who contribute data or new charges. Lawyer heard the statement of the first complainant, Marcela Aranda Escobar, on 25 January, in the context of research canonical who commissioned him.
Bown – very low profile in relation to other known criminal defence – must have been more attentive than usual to your phone to receive messages from unknown numbers. The approach has worked. Sunday, January 27 the Jesuits acknowledged officially that they had received new complaints of women against Poblete.
If we look at his full name, Waldo Justus Bown Intveen (42), seems descended from settlers Anglo-Saxon incorporated to the Chilean elite. But no. It is the third of four children of a family of middle class. “He chose law almost by default, because it was not good at math, but not going to study a humanist as a philosophy degree,” said one of his colleagues at the colegio La Salle where he graduated. It was not good for numbers like his brother Horacio, Professor in engineering forestry of the University of Chile, the same where Waldo was accepted to study law, and graduated in 2003. Until then the single cable with the right was his uncle, Héctor Bown Ortega, head of a notary in Ñuñoa, with whom he has no relationship, according to his close.
Despite being student at a religious school, Bown “has good little Catholic and is closer to being agnostic”, explained one of its nearby, who added that “never was the pastoral or close to the priests”. The only link with the Church is its devotion to soccer club Universidad Católica, where he frequented the “barra brava” student team, known as the Crusaders, in their student days.
In fact, one of the first cases of public connotation that participated was in 2008, when he assumed the defense of Andrés Tupper Lyon, brother of Raimundo Tupper and former President of the club. Tupper was an Executive of the Indian company Tata, who was investigated for irregularities in a tender with the Civil Registry. He was acquitted of charges of bribery and the Prosecutor in the case should apologize for mistakes in the investigation on the ridge that involved him.
Defending “the bad” this profile away from the Church is one of the strengths that made to the society of Jesus decide by Bown, which integrates the study Balbontín, Linazasoro y Cia, led by lawyer Carlos Balbontín Gubbins, as partner to whom Bown has recognized as his mentor. He joined the study in 2001 as Attorney, after qualify among other applicants, but was in 2005 when it was proposed and accepted as a partner, just two years after graduating. “Although that is known for big cases where earned, Waldo has also lost as anyone and is which takes boys cases like handling drunk, which are finally a lawyer living,” said a companion study where he also parti CIPA DC former Minister, Jorge Correa subtle.
Bown does not give interviews and only delivered specific phrases to the press about cases in which participates, all hastily, in the center of Justice. On March 25 it will reappear. The day begins the trial against Jaime Orpis, in which the lawyer representing Corpesca, accused of delivering $233 million of irregular shape to the parliamentary. Magister in business law criminal and the company of the University of Chile, his thesis published in 2017 questioned the “telephone intercepts of conversations between counsel and accused lawyer” and was guided by the Attorney Matías Insunza.
Apart from Corpesca, defended two executives of the CMPC in the case of the collusion of the paper. He worked with the Group Said Somavía who, through investment Caburgua, should grinding irregular statements service of internal taxes (SII) in the framework of investigations on political silver. If SQM was defender of the counter and exejecutivo Miner, Raúl Saldías, sentenced to 800 days of referred penalty, but on the political edge of the case was between which the Prosecutor’s office decided not to persevere. He worked with Balbontín in the case of the unilateral renegotiations of the Polar defending AFP Provida and other institutional investors.
Is not others mention the study led by Balbontín specializes in legal advice to banking institutions, as for example the Bank of Chile in the case of Riggs by accounts that remained of Augusto Pinochet, or BBVA, one of those affected in the case of Inverlink .
Personal contract in the case of Poblete, the contract is personal between Bown and the society of Jesus. Although he works in his Studio Office, comments on any aspect of the case with the rest of the lawyers. One of his colleagues said that “it is entertaining, you had to study issues of Canon law and visit in person to people who have made allegations. It is a very humble Rooster who rarely brags about winning and instead attributes it to various factors, most that their own ability. As the football players when they talk about teamwork. The truth is that I can’t imagine him giving nudges to ascend in a large study. It is not the typical workaholic lawyer either. Good time spent his family”.
Bown’s advances in the investigation of the Jesuits are periodically reported to the provincial and the priest Francisco Jiménez, who also is an attorney and has published two books of poetry. Also which sounds more as a successor of the field.
Bown name is not new to the society of Jesus. Lawyer already investigated the priest Jaime Guzmán Astaburuaga, who received a sanction canonical then that Bown research determined that allegations of sexual abuse against him were “plausible” and, similarly, credited the misconduct of Eugenio Valenzuela, exprovincial of the Ordinance who weighs a new complaint of an adult who currently investigates Bown and the maximum sanction that risks involving the plunder of his clerical State.
