The Oral Criminal Trial Court of Puerto Montt handed down a conviction verdict on Saturday against the former mayor of Puerto Varas Alvaro Berger, as the author of the consummated crime of tax fraud. Beger perpetrated the crime in September 2015.
In a unanimous resolution, the court – made up of the magistrates Rosario Cardenas Carvajal (Chairwoman), Patricia Miranda Alvarado (editor) and Andres Villagra Ramirez– After the rigorous deliberation, it established both the occurrence of the crime and the guilty participation of Berger Schmidt in the established facts.
You may also like:
In turn, the court decreed the acquittal of Berger, due to lack of accreditation, from the prosecution and plaintiff, which attributed responsibility for the crime of fraudulently obtaining State benefits.
The court will announce the sentence on January 19 at 9:00 p.m. Berger risks a five-year prison sentence.
The facts: the trip to Argentina
According to the record of deliberation, the Municipal Council of Puerto Varas agreed on October 15, 2014, at the proposal of the then mayor Berger, the trip of a delegation from the municipality, headed by the communal authority, to San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina.
The purpose of the trip was to sign an “Agreement for Tourism Promotion, Cultural Exchange, Marketing of Regional Products of the Popular Solidarity Economy and others”, between both municipalities.
Berger arranged in September 2015 a foreign services commission, made up of himself, the councilors Fredy Opitz Vergara, Luis Guzman Cabezas Y Hector Jacob Riquelme, and seven municipal officials. The entourage also included a special guest of the mayor: Paola Levican Riverawho had a sentimental relationship with the communal chief during that time.
“For this service commission, a total of $5,338,080, broken down into $424,350, which Berger Schmidt obtained fraudulently for himself, and $4,931,730, was paid in total for advance travel expenses and fixed funds to be rendered. those that he allowed were carried out knowingly, so that the municipality would be defrauded,” the resolution states.
The “payments were made with municipal funds, through the issuance of checks, all of which were issued and paid to the recipients of the service commission,” the text adds.
The court determined that the commission did not meet its objective. “Neither Berger Schmidt, nor any municipal official of Puerto Varas, on his behalf, made prior formal contact for this purpose with any official of the Municipality of San Carlos de Bariloche, since there was never any real intention to materialize the stated, formalized purpose. and entrusted to the aforementioned commission of services abroad”, they pointed out.
“In this way, Álvaro Berger Schmidt, in the capacity he held to date, abusing his position, the appearance of legality and legitimacy that his actions as mayor generated, carried out maneuvers to obtain improper payments, by allowing payments to his entourage, knowing that the trip lacked public interest,” the resolution states.
