The former mayor of Vitacura, Raúl Torrealba del Pedregal, who is about to be formalized for alleged crimes of embezzlement of public funds, bribery, tax fraud, falsification of public documents and money laundering, added new serious records today Saturday.
A report published by Third revealed details of the triangulation that Torrealba would have set up to misappropriate funds from the municipality that he had directed since 1996. This would be added to the wads of cash bills found on the walls of the second home of the former renowned National Renovation militant, located in Colico Lake, Cunco commune, La Araucanía region.
As detailed in the morning paper, every month, the community development director of the municipality, Antonia Larraín, received an envelope with $5 million pesos from Vita corporations, which she delivered directly to former mayor Torrealba. Remember that Vita Salud, Vita Emprende and Vita Deportes are non-profit corporations that operated under the wing of the municipality and therefore received a state subsidy. They were in charge of Domingo Prieto.
In addition, as detailed in the journalistic investigation, when events and/or activities of the community development department were held, the surpluses were delivered to Torrealba, without any receipt. All that money Torrealba gave to his driver who deposited it in different bank accounts. When the secret of his bank account was lifted, they found $2.3 billion in the Bank of Chile. Considering that his salary as mayor was 3.5 million, the figures do not add up.
In this regard, being also one of the first politicians to condemn the situation, the deputy and president of Acción Humanista, Tomás Hirsch, said that “the super mayor RN of Vitacura was more of a thief than a country cat. That is why I presented a bill to that the Comptroller’s Office can oversee the Municipal Corporations”.
It is worth mentioning that, for now, one of the arguments to justify the transfer of money from Prieto to Larraín, and from Larraín to Torrealba, would have been the bidding for advertising concessions from the Municipal Sports Corporation of Vitacura. It is still expected to collect more information that will clarify the situation, while the formalization and eventual request for preventive detention is being prepared for the man who for 24 years was in command of one of the richest communes in the country.
