La Cutufa

Chilean finance syndicate

La Cutufa was an illegal Chilean clandestine finance syndicate (dubbed after an official's dog[1]) that offered investors, mostly officers of the Chilean army, tax-free interest rates of 20% a month. It was created by Major Patricio Castro Muñoz, a high-ranking official of the CNI (the Chilean secret police during the last 13 years of the Pinochet dictatorship), and was active from 1984 to 1989. After a dissatisfied investor, restaurant impresario Aurelio Sichel, was murdered by CNI agents, 4 generals and 16 officers were cashiered and 200 sanctioned. According to the claimers, during its five years of operation, the army gang handled $50 million.

See also

  • Chile under Pinochet
  • Hugo Salas Wenzel

References

  1. ^ Mary Helen Spooner (1994). Soldiers in a narrow land: the Pinochet regime in Chile. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520080836. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  • Article Rechnung ohne Witwe in German magazine Der Spiegel on 26. November 1990, in German language, retrieved on 26. June 2011
  • Article In Chile, Army Scandal May Damage Former Dictator Pinochet by Leslie Crawford in Chicago Tribune on November 23, 1990, retrieved on 26 June 2011
  • Article Profile: Chile Trying to Live With Democracy ... and Pinochet : The dictator turned over power last year but he still commands the army. He just won't go away in Los Angeles Times by William R. Long, on February 5, 1991