The Superintendence of Insolvency and Re-entrepreneurship (Superir) requested the removal of the liquidator in the Chang Case, Carlos Parada Abate. This, after discovering numerous irregularities in the management of funds from the reorganization of the Chilean businessman accused of fraud, money laundering and violation of the Banking Law.
According to the document presented before the 15th Civil Court of Santiago – to which the BioBioChile Investigation Unit had access – the supervisory body points to Stoppage for negligent administration regarding the assets seized in the procedure.
In simple terms, the fate of millionaire funds from the auction of Chang’s properties in Chile and abroad is unknown, which raises suspicions against the professional, who even had to go through preventive detention after starring in a similar scandal in the liquidation of the Universidad del Pacífico.
Accounts in tax havens, apartments in the main capitals of the world and Chang’s desire to become an astronaut are part of the story that has Parada once again in the eye of the hurricane. His lawyer, Juan Carlos Leva, alleges that there are no creditors who have claimed against the management of his representative. It’s all just lack of information, he claims.
The Porsche and the apartments in Vitacura
According to the brief sponsored by Superintendent Hugo Sánchez Ramírez, the irregularities began with the seizure of six cars that belonged to Sociedad Alberto Chang SpA.
It is a Porsche, a Skoda, a Mercedes Benz, a BMW and an Aston Martin, which were auctioned on September 7, 2017 for more than 304 million pesos.
But there is something that does not add up to the Superir: it could only verify that at the hands of Chang’s creditors, just over $147 million were entered. Of the rest of the money, little or nothing is known, only that all the funds were collected by Parada himself.
There is more. On January 31, 2018, a series of properties seized from Chang were auctioned off. Among them are apartments, parking spaces and warehouses, all located in Vitacura. Through this process another $967 million were obtained.
However, Superir -as with the vehicles- detected that only $56.5 million were entered into the contest. The agency asked Parada for explanations about the destination of the funds obtained in the auction. Despite this, to date, the liquidator has not responded.
Due, there is ignorance about the total income received by the creditors as a result of the sale of the assets that belonged to the Alberto Chang SpA Companyas well as regarding the result of its liquidation.
Department that was not seized
The questions of the superintendence continue. In his audit, he established that Parada did not request the revocation of the transfer of an apartment made by Chang before his case exploded.
The transfer was made by the businessman himself to a woman identified as Ruby Paz Fuentes. Hence, Parada was instructed to report the reasons why revocation actions were not filed regarding the transfer, precisely in the period in which it could still be done.
Parada – the document reads – had to “take action to obtain the reinstatement of said property if it were appropriate or, at least, inform and submit a decision in this regard to the creditors’ meeting.” That, in this case, did not happen.
The document details that even though said property would appear within the assets of the Alberto Chang SpA Company, no further information was provided in this regard. Due to this, from the Superir they point out that there was a negligent act on the part of Parada.
They assure that he omitted information regarding all of Chang’s assets, as well as the execution of steps to obtain the largest reimbursement for the estate.
Unjustified payments
Add and continue. Another of the edges of what was discovered is related to unjustified payments. An example is what happened after the hiring -agreed at the Extraordinary Meeting of Creditors on August 2, 2017- of the lawyer Alejandro Espina Gutiérrez. The objective was to exercise revocation procedures with respect to one of the departments located in Vitacura.
For this, the creditors set their fees at 200 UF, plus 10% of the benefit obtained by the action deducted. However, after reviewing his contract, it was detected that Parada stated that the fees would be 224 UF. That is, 24 UF more than is due, more than 700 thousand pesos in excess.
This led the Superir to request from Parada the reason for having agreed with said contracting an amount not approved by the creditors’ meeting, having to repay the difference observed, duly updated.
“However, to date, the liquidator has not responded to the instructions, as well as there is no evidence that the amount paid in excess has been returned to the estate,” details the Superintendence.
The Virgin Islands and ¿Chang astronaut?
Chang, in his estate, kept assets not only in Chile but also in other countries. In its capacity as liquidator, Parada was authorized in July 2017 to act in the jurisdictions of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, British Virgin Islands, China, Northern Ireland, Malta, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Isles of Man, Jersey and Singapore. .
The problem, once again, is that there are no backups of the operations carried out abroad. A) Yes, there are no records of how, to whom, or how much he traded Chang’s properties for.
“Subsequent to that, there is only the remission of a presentation of the procedures carried out abroad”, specifies the Superir, adding that however, “it does not detail the expenses or income, as well as no supporting document was accompanied ”.
Here appear works of art, apartments, bank accounts and even the recovery of a deposit that Chang gave to become an astronaut.
It is a reservation for more than 194 thousand dollars (about 190 million Chilean pesos at current exchange rates) delivered to Virgin Galactic, a space travel company founded by Richard Branson. The latter, a space entrepreneur who traveled into space aboard a VSS Unity spacecraft, built by his own company.
With this launch, the tycoon opened the door for future space trips designed for the most well-off tourists. Among them, it is clear from the superintendency’s letter, was Chang.
sisters-in-law among creditors
Another of the irregularities detected by Superir is related to the family relationship that the liquidator has with some of the creditors.
According to the document, they are Enrique Comellas Tarifa, Vanessa Gil Nigoevic, Vladna Gil Nigoevic and Natasha Gil Nigoevic, who are Parada’s brothers-in-law, so they are collateral by affinity in the second degree.
In simple, a conflict of interest that was not reported by Parada. In relation to the foregoing, the agency indicates that the person mentioned should have disclosed his relationship with Chang’s creditors, “since he may have been aware that his relatives had debts with the debtor company, considering that the liquidation of ONIX Capital, the main obligated, was in liquidation procedure prior to the beginning of this procedure”.
Due to the high public connotation that the case has had, the Superir claims, it is practically impossible to claim ignorance that a family member had claims against him.
extra fees
As if that were not enough, another aspect that Superir is targeting is related to the Parada’s own fees. Through an official letter dated November 6, 2018, it was detected that the liquidator received 7,388.15 UF as remuneration, which as of October 2 of that year was equivalent to more than $202 million.
The problem is that according to what was calculated by the Superintendence, the fee for Parada should be 5,949.06 UF, equivalent to $162 million. In other words, there was an excess of fees of 1,439.09 UF, equivalent to more than $39 million. Round business.
Due to this, Parada was instructed to inform the Superir about what had happened, in turn reimbursing the difference in payment. However, and as happened in the rest of the irregularities, to date it has not reported with documentation nor has it rectified what was observed.
Parry Defense
In a conversation with BioBioChile, Juan Carlos Leva, Carlos Parada’s lawyer, alleges that there are no creditors who have claimed against the management of his client.
“In fact, this management generates tremendous damage to creditors by having to start with a liquidator from scratch. It is a fight that Carlos Parada has had with the Superintendency, “he asserts.
And he adds: “If you see the charges against him, They are charges of lack of information, that they asked him for the official letter and he did not answer it in time. They were accumulating and generated this incident, but it is not a matter that is executory, much less.
Along with ruling out irregularities, Leva remarked that creditors have backed Parada’s management.
“He is suspended while this incident is processed. But for this to be resolved, it will take a long time. In the meantime, the procedures must be carried out by the substitute liquidator”, he says.
“That is what is being claimed for the damage caused to creditors by parting with someone who has no idea what we were up to, on an issue that was super advanced. That is why I tell you that there are no creditors that have promoted this, this comes from the Superintendence and not from the creditors. It is a matter of supervision, it is not that the creditors, in the context of the trial, have claimed ”, she raises.
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