Corfo leads creditors in US$60mn lawsuit

Creditors of intervened Chilean financial group Inverlink have begun action in the country's appeals court to recover US$60mn in funds withdrawn from the company's coffers prior to its collapse, local daily La Tercera reported. The creditors, led by state development agency Corfo, filed Wednesday (Dec.24) a lawsuit against 15 former investors from the country's corporate and public sectors in a bid to recover the funds those entities withdrew from Inverlink before it folded, the paper said. The former investors include San Antonio port operator which withdrew 3.5bn pesos (US$5.87mn) from Inverlink, the municipality of Vina del Mar (1.5bn pesos), Constructora Sacyr y Sacyr (20bn pesos), Prospecta, and Comanda e Inversiones Santa Cecilia (8bn pesos). Inverlink was intervened earlier this year amid accusations relating to the theft of financial instruments from Corfo and espionage activities at the central bank. The scandal rocked the local financial establishment and led to the resignations of central bank chairman Carlos Massad and securities regulator Alvaro Clarke. The disgraced group's former chief executive Enzo Bertinelli and other company officials including ex-chairman Eduardo Monasterio, Ignacio Wulf and former money desk manager Javier Moya are facing charges related to the case.