#CuraumaCase / The Curauma Case
Chile, Oct 2024 - The #CuraumaCase revolves around the fraudulent bankruptcy forced upon the company Curauma S.A., controlled by entrepreneur Manuel Cruzat Infante. This bankruptcy, widely deemed illegal, constitutes a serious breach of the rule of law and Chile's economic public order.
The process was plagued with irregularities and manipulations designed to strip the company of its assets and benefit the lender, Euroamerica Seguros de Vida, along with its controllers, Henry Comber (recently implicated in Chile's Casino Collusion Case for alleged anti-competitive practices) and Nicholas Davis. These actions involved the abuse of judicial mechanisms, manipulation of the case assignment algorithm, and questionable use of legal standards. In 2013, attorney Julio Bustamante Jeraldo, a former director of Curauma S.A., filed for bankruptcy in Santiago despite the company’s legal domicile being in Valparaíso, in clear violation of existing regulations. The filing was based on an alleged debt of approximately $80,000 USD, a minimal amount that was never substantiated with documentary evidence or payment records, thus violating the Securities Law and the Corporations Law. This suggested a possible manipulation of laws to force bankruptcy to benefit certain parties. Even though Curauma S.A. held assets valued at more than $500 million USD, it was driven into bankruptcy over this minor debt, seriously undermining economic public order by violating principles of transparency and fair competition in the market. César Millán Nicolet, the trustee in charge of the liquidation, was accused of maintaining improper relations with the owners of Euroamerica Seguros de Vida, who seized Curauma S.A.’s assets through a financial operation with interest rates above the Maximum Conventional Rate, further raising suspicions about the legality and ethics of the process. The Curauma Case, ongoing since 2013 with numerous legal actions still underway, represents a systematic transgression of the rule of law and economic public order in Chile, as well as a violation of the republic’s democratic system. - casocurauma.blogspot.com
