MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Huge fine for “inside trading”.

A Chilean court this Thursday upheld a $55 million fine - first imposed seven years ago - against six stockholders for manipulating the multi-million dollar sale of Enersis shares to Spain's Endesa, the country's main electricity consortium.

The Santiago Appeals Court upheld the fine imposed by securities regulators against Jose Yuraszeck, Luis Fernando Mackenna, Marcos Zylberberg, Marcelo Brito, Arsenio Molina and Eduardo Gardella, all former members of Enersis' board of directors. Yuraszeck, known in the 1990s as Chile's "electricity czar," was the CEO of Enersis when the group was sold to Endesa.

Though Yuraszeck and his partners owned only 0.05% of the shares of the leading privately owned power company in Latin America, they ended up with a joint $500 million, nearly half the total value of the transaction.

"The executives used their positions on the board to benefit themselves and related third parties," the court ruled.

"It was precisely the jobs they held that let them know about Endesa España's interest in acquiring control of Enersis, to which it was later transferred selling its own stocks". The large sums received for the sale of shares was "a clear reward for the benefits, cooperation pledges and loyalty they gave purchaser Endesa España" said the court ruling, adding that they "concealed information from the remaining board members" at Enersis.

Attorney Pablo Rodriguez Grez who represents Yuraszeck, said he plans to appeal the court ruling upholding the fine, describing it as "unfair" and "arbitrary":