An investigation by the Supraterritorial Prosecutor’s Office, which investigates organized crime and high-complexity cases in all regions of Chile, led this Wednesday to the arrest of at least seven people linked to an alleged organization dedicated to extortionate kidnapping and other crimes. Among those apprehended are three active officers of the Investigations Police (PDI) and former prosecutor Vinko Fodich, according to local media.
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The criminal lawyer, a graduate of the University of Valparaíso, was prosecutor of Curicó between 2001 and 2004 and then was in charge of the local Prosecutor’s Office of Ñuñoa, Providencia, and La Reina, three municipalities in the eastern sector of Santiago, between 2005 and 2010, a period in which he specialized in cases of economic crimes, corruption, and money laundering. Additionally, he worked in the Undersecretariat for Crime Prevention in Sebastián Piñera’s first government (2010-2014).
The Supraterritorial Prosecutor’s Office has only reported that, together with the PDI, they are carrying out various operations in the Santiago Metropolitan Region for investigations into extortionate kidnappings, criminal association, extortion, and other crimes. “Procedures are ongoing regarding this operation,” the entity wrote on its X account. They also later indicated that “regarding the seven detainees (…) their detention was extended until Friday at the Seventh Guarantee Court, where the background for which they are being investigated will be presented.”
The case originated after the PDI’s Internal Affairs Department detected signs of irregular conduct within the institution, which led to opening a joint investigation with the Supraterritorial Prosecutor’s Office, led by prosecutor Miguel Ángel Orellana. Among those arrested is also Luis Moraga Parisi, first cousin of the former presidential candidate and leader of the People’s Party, Franco Parisi, according to Ciper.
Previously, the Supraterritorial Prosecutor’s Office was investigating Fodich in another case, in which the agency had requested judicial authorization to listen to his phone calls and review his bank accounts. The lawyer shares ownership of the currency exchange house E-Panda Financiero SpA, formerly called Change Panda SpA, with Luis Muñoz Morales, a former PPD councilor candidate sentenced to 800 days of suspended sentence and a fine for money laundering who would be linked to a Colombian criminal association dedicated to “gota a gota” loans, according to a report by Informe Especial of TVN, published in August.
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The currency exchange was used by Stiven Enríquez, head of a criminal organization in Chile, to carry out 58 dollar purchase operations for more than 722 million pesos (779,000 dollars) between May 30 and November 12, 2024, which were converted into cryptocurrencies, according to Muñoz’s conviction ruling, accessed by TVN. A week ago, the Financial Market Commission (CMF) warned that E-Panda Financiero SpA is neither registered nor authorized to provide regulated services.
Before his arrest, Fodich denied any participation in a criminal association. He stated that all his income comes from his professional practice and that his relationship with the currency exchange is limited to that of a minority shareholder, without interference in the company’s management.
Among the clients the lawyer has represented is Haiwei Xu, a Chinese citizen who was considered a person of interest in another investigation for an alleged criminal organization operating in Estación Central, investigated in various cases for smuggling and product counterfeiting, among other crimes.
Fodich is a well-known lawyer who has a law firm with two other former prosecutors, Alejandro Peña and José Antonio Villalobos. As a criminal lawyer, he has participated in several high-profile cases, including the defense of former Carabineros corporal Sebastián Zamora, current deputy for the Republican Party, who was acquitted in July 2024 of responsibility for the fall of a 16-year-old teenager from the Pío Nono Bridge into the Mapocho River on October 2, 2020, during the social outbreak protests. However, Fodich could not attend his trial because he faced charges for driving under the influence with serious and less serious consequences. It was on Sunday, June 30 of that year, when he was driving against traffic in the Providencia commune and collided with another car, in which a woman and a nine-year-old girl were.
