MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pinochet's son says ex-general had up to $11 mn

Marco Antonio Pinochet Hiriart, younger son of former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, said in an interview published Sunday by the Chilean press that his father had between $8.5 million and $11 million in bank accounts in the United States

"It could be between $8.5 million and $11 million what he has between Riggs (Bank) and Espirito Santo (Bank)," Pinochet Hiriart told the La Tercera newspaper.

Pinochet Hiriart, who U.S. Senate investigators determined also was on some of his father's accounts, said the figure "fits the information we already knew about from the lawyers." Last summer, a U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee discovered Pinochet's multi-million-dollar secret accounts in Washington's Riggs Bank.

A report issued by the subcommittee last Tuesday said Pinochet moved millions of dollars of uncertain origin through at least 125 accounts at Riggs and eight other U.S. financial institutions, including Citibank and Bank of America.

Pinochet Hiriart said the U.S. investigators conducted "a not very exhaustive review" and ripped the report for its "lack of seriousness." He also criticized the charges against him and other individuals close to his father, which "violate the right to privacy of people who are not the subject of any trial or investigation, only for the reason of their relationship with my father." Pinochet Hiriart said he was willing to travel to the United States to clear up his case and denied having made any transfers to his father's accounts at Riggs Bank.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin said last week that Augusto Pinochet used fictitious names and straw men for many of the banking transactions. Levin said the former dictator's fortune could be significantly larger than previously estimated, noting that Pinochet, his family and other fronts held accounts in the Bahamas, Argentina, the Cayman Islands, Chile, Gibraltar, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Judge Sergio Muñoz is heading Chile's investigation into the origin and tax aspects of the monies Pinochet had in Riggs Bank. The magistrate, who estimated Pinochet's personal wealth at $16.1 million, froze $6 million worth of the retired general's assets last November.

The Chilean press reported last week that Pinochet's tax debts for the 1990-2004 period exceed $17 million. The daily cited a police document it said was prepared on the orders of Muñoz.

Pinochet's official salary never exceeded $15,000 a year.