Marine Harvest Chile presents civil lawsuit against former CEO
Jiménez was appointed to the top position in Marine Harvest Chile and Salmones Tecmar, both subsidiaries of the world largest salmon producer Marine Harvest ASA, based in Norway, from April 2008 to January 2011. At mid-year 2009, the former executive signed commercial contracts in the name of both companies with Salmones Sur Austral S.A., deliberately withholding from his employer the fact that he indirectly participated, at the same time, in the profits of the latter entity.
Jiménez had Access to privileged proprietary information of Marine Harvest Group that allowed him to come with the business idea and design a legal structure through which he would participate in the profits without being detected. Because of his position inside the company and the trust deposited in his person, he persuaded the mother company about the convenience of this deal under the appearance of protecting Marine Harvest Chile’s interest, seriously affected by ISA virus at that time.
For this purpose, he acted jointly with Fernando Toro Riveros, who aside from executing the contracts referred to above as legal representative of Salmones Sur Austral S.A, a few days later signed an Association Agreement between an investment company owned by him and an investment company owned by Jiménez. By virtue of this private contract, both agreed to distribute, in equal parts, the profits obtained from Toro´s investment company in Salmones Sur Austral S.A.
This latter company was incorporated for the sole purpose of signing the contracts with Marine Harvest Chile S.A. and Salmones Tecmar S.A. and it did not own any aquaculture or productive asset. In less than 2 years reported profits estimated in an amount close to US$ 40 million for its shareholders, all of them exclusively obtained from the contracts referred to above.
After the discovery of this serious evidence, Marine Harvest filed an arbitral lawsuit against Salmones Sur Austral S.A., aiming for the arbitration to declare the annulment of the contracts subscribed with this company considering its illegal origin. Additionally, Marine Harvest presented an injunction against determined Jiménez’s assets. The injunction was granted by the 14th Civil Court of Santiago. In the upcoming days, the company is expected to present a civil lawsuit against Jiménez and Toro. This action will pursue, firstly, the civil liability of the former Managing Director for the breach of Chilean Corporate and Company Law and, secondly, the restitution of the benefits received from the fraudulent contract, respectively.
