Former Chilean mayor flees the country after being convicted of tax fraud

Santiago de Chile, 24 Mar The former Chilean mayor of the city of Antofagasta, Karen Rojo, fled the country after a five-year effective prison sentence against her for the crime of tax fraud, in events that occurred between 2015 and 2016 while she was leading the communal administration. It was the Supreme Court — the highest court in the South American country — that rejected the application for annulment with which Rojo sought to avoid prison, upholding the judgment of the Oral Criminal Court of Antofagasta in the so-called “Main” case. According to this research, exedil contracted the services of a communications company to improve its image in the face of re-election using public funds for education and health, about 24 million pesos (about 30,000 dollars). “It is a precedent in the sense that a sentence with an effective enforcement sentence had not been achieved for the crime of fraud against the Treasury,” said Antofagasta Chief Prosecutor Cristian Aguilar. In addition, the court rejected an appeal filed by the defense of the former executive secretary of the Antofagasta Municipal Corporation, Edgardo Vergara, who was sentenced to three years and one day of probation for the same crime. The information was confirmed by the Investigative Police (PDI) — the personnel in charge of border control — in a statement stating that Rojo left the country yesterday from Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago. According to the PDI, Rojo, independent but close to the right-wing Independent Democratic Union (UDI), “did not present any illegal impediment” to leaving the territory, since national rooting was not provided for in its precauteral measures. According to preliminary information released by local media, Rojo would have gone to the Netherlands. CHIEF ssb/pnm/lll