translated from Spanish: Family matters: Frei clan "beaten" by self-reporting of the former president's brother before the Public Prosecutor's Office

“As a family Frei Larraechea we are very beaten and going through a very difficult moment in the human.” Thus begins the statement that was released this morning by former President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, before the self-reporting of his brother Francisco Frei before the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In a four-page text, Francisco Frei Ruiz-Tagle told the High Complexity Unit of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Central Santiago, for a series of illicit financial transactions that he committed in recent years on behalf of the company Inversiones Saturno S.A., which belongs to the former Mandatario and his wife Marta Larraechea.
According to the information released by Interference, Francisco Frei had a power to act as administrator of Saturn, a closed limited company that Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle established in October 1988 shortly after the triumph of the No in the plebiscite, and which currently owns several properties.
Francisco Frei’s writing – the youngest of seven brothers – states that he signed various credit instruments, such as letters and promissory notes, in the name of his brother’s society, but without his knowledge or consent, and using the money to inject him into another society of his brother’s Property.
The former president’s own complaint claims that the wrongdoings are 496 million pesos, although people close to the case say it could be much more, even reaching $2 billion.
“I must state that everything that is stated I did by abusing the trust and name of my brother Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, without his consent or authorization (…) I feel great remorse for the enormous damage this has caused and can cause, especially my brother and my entire family,” the younger Freis’ writing says.
Almadena: the root of the problem
This plot began when Francisco Frei was financially engaged. According to the letter he handed over to Fiscalía, his company, Almacenes de Depósitos Nacionales S.A. (Almadena), and himself, were going through a difficult economic situation.
Almadena, according to U.S. services dedicated to databases of companies around the world, has a turnover of $2.7 million annually, and a payroll of 14 employees, notes Interference.
Faced with his company’s delicate economic situation, Frei signed a series of financial agreements with at least four factoring companies, all on behalf of Saturn investments, but using those funds to capitalize on his company.
He also made commitments to factoring firms through Almadena, using Eduardo Frei as collateral and even falsifying signatures and fingerprints of former President.
In that sense, Frei signed a promissory note with Moonk Factoring for 42 million pesos, using his brother as collateral. Francis acknowledged in his writing that he forged both the signature and the fingerprint to simulate the former head of state’s involvement in the operation.
What happened between the Frei brothers ends up adding more firewood to a situation that was previously complicated, due to the various positions around the death of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva at the Santa Maria Clinic in January 1982.
Francisco Frei is a commercial engineer with a mention in Economics from the University of Chile and MBA University of Chicago, United States. He was a member of the board of National Television and was also dotted with the SQM case, when a history of the ballots included as irregular by the miner that were destined for two of its companies emerged. As for his party life, he became National Secretary of Christian Democracy in the presidency of Alejandro Foxley, from 1994 to 1997.
Eduardo Frei: “The damage caused has been irreparable”
In the statement, signed on behalf of the Frei Larraechea family, Eduardo Frei acknowledged that “we are shocked by the facts that were the subject of the self-report that Francisco Frei made before the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in which he acknowledges having violated our trust. The damage caused has been irreparable, in every sense.”
“As a public man, in all the positions I had to play, I always put the common good above the personal good and always sought to ensure that the rules and its spirit were met. And today, as in the past, I must be consistent with my principles and expect the Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate my brother and rule out the appropriate thing in law. I will enforce all rights that, as affected, are recognized by the law,” he adds.
Finally, the former President argued that “through my lawyers I have made myself available to the Prosecutor’s Office in order to collaborate with their investigation and provide all the necessary backgrounds, however painful for me and my family and to all those who they have also been able to fall victim to the actions of my brother Francis.”