Only three business chains linked to timber theft have been investigated by the Internal Revenue Service (SII) in almost a decade.
It was on May 30 when the institution met criticism from the Bío Bío governor, Rodrigo Díaz, who harshly criticized the organization for “not following the path of money.”
In response, the institution contracted: via a public statement and with figures in hand, the SII brought to light the presentation of 16 criminal complaints associated with this crime in the so-called South Macrozone.
More than two months after the controversy, however, reality seems to agree with Díaz. The BioBioChile Research Unit accessed and analyzed the libels entered by the institution between 2015 and 2022.
The result? The persecution of just three illegal timber trade chains. Two of them come together in the same final buyer: Volterra, a forestry company with Japanese capital, that it was not subjected to criminal proceedings by the entity presided over at that time by Fernando Barraza.
In the more than a thousand pages of information reviewed by this means, the modus operandi and the formulas used with which the treasury was damaged by more than 6,200 million pesos.
Case Zero: Henry Vigueras
The first criminal prosecution by the SII linked to the theft of wood began in mid-2015. It all started with the filing of a criminal complaint against the businessman from the province of Arauco, Henry Vigueras.
Sources consulted point out that the case changed the paradigm within the service. If before they were dropped on the lowest links of the crime, this time it was escalated to the middle management. This allowed the inspectors to identify the way of operating of those involved in the laundering of wood. The same formula was detected in subsequent cases.
In good accounts, Vigueras, together with his accountant Guillermo Mesa Huichalao, convinced white sticks or figureheads to give them their blank invoice books. The documents would later be used to enter the formal market products of dubious origin.
As explained by the Public Ministry before the Court of Oral Criminal Trial of Cañetethe idea of using false invoices was a consequence of “a creation by the accountant Mesa Huichalao, because Mr. Vigueras bought a significant amount of wood from people who did not have the necessary documentation for the sale of this type of element.”
The origin of the wood? According to what was established in the same court, Vigueras negotiated -via emissaries- with Mapuche communities in the Tirúa sector, who maintained forests “in recovery”. He paid them with cash.
In total, between 2011 and 2014, Vigueras traded more than $5 billion in forest products. According to the investigation, the wood went first to two companies linked to the merchant: Belén and Pilpilco. And then, to Volterra, a firm with Japanese capitals with whom he maintained a close relationship.
Despite this last link, the investigation was limited to investigating only Vigueras and his accountant. The damage to the treasury was estimated at more than one billion pesos. However, the justice sentenced him to just 541 days in jail.
The “hunting group”
The end of the Vigueras case also served as an apprenticeship. The idea, from then on, was once again to climb the chain of fraud. Not only towards the middle managers but towards the large forestry companies.
In the midst of this process, the then mayor of the Bío Bío region, Rodrigo Díaz, decided to form “a hunting group” to try to curb the already unleashed problem of wood theft.
The objective was clear: pursue the money route. Every illegal business leaves traces, so in 2015 they formed a team of inspectors and lawyers who could identify those higher links.
Shortly after, the SII “hunting group” set its sights on the executives of two companies linked to the forestry sector, which -coincidence or not- operated in a similar way to that seen in the Vigueras case: Los Acacios and Innovaciones Forestales (IF).
These are events that occurred from the tax periods of 2014. This case would concentrate 14 of the 16 complaints filed by the SII, the most prolific of the agency in the last decade.
The case was prosecuted on January 6, 2016, with the presentation
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