Two former salmon farming executives handed 800-day sentences
But Nova Austral managers can serve their time outside prison
Former executives of the Chile salmon farming company Nova Austral - Nicos Nicolaides Bussenius, and Drago Covacich MacKay - were sentenced yesterday to 800 days in prison, plus a fine of 24 tax units (1,654,152 Chilean pesos, or £1,306) each, as perpetrators of the crime of repeated water pollution between 2017 and 2019.
In addition, Isaac Aaron Ollivet Besson Osorio and Rigoberto Antonio Garrido Arriagada were sentenced to 40 days in prison and a fine of 4 tax units (£218) each, as "accessories in the crime of water pollution, between 2017 and 2019" at the court in Porvenir, capital of the Tierra del Fuego Province.
Regarding a charge of subsidy fraud, all four were acquitted.
Both Nicolaides and Covacich were granted conditional release. This means that, during the 800 days of their sentences, they will remain under the supervision of the Chilean Gendarmerie's Social Reintegration Center, according to the ruling by judges Julio Álvarez Toro, Guillermo Cádiz Vatcky, and José Flores Vásquez.
False information
Likewise, unanimously and after reclassification, the court convicted Drago Covacich of the crime of "providing false information to the supervisory authority," ordering him to pay a fine of 2 tax units ($137,846).
The acquittal for subsidy fraud was agreed upon with a dissenting vote by Judge José Flores, who also convicted defendants Nicolaides and Covacich of this crime, as a repeat offence, according to La Prensa Austral.
Civil lawsuit
Regarding a related civil action, the court upheld the defendants' "statute of limitations exception" by two votes to one and rejected the claim for damages filed by the State Defence Council, representing the Chilean Treasury, as argued by the entity's attorney, Marcel Villegas.
Judge Flores again voted against the ruling and partially upheld the civil claim for damages filed by the Chilean Treasury against both defendants.
Crime
Executives of the company Nova Austral were accused and brought to trial by prosecutor Sebastián González for falsifying data on the stocking, harvesting, and mortality of the fish they kept at fish farms in Magallanes.
In January of this year, the Public Prosecutor's Office obtained the first conviction in this high-profile case. It was against the former production manager of the company Nova Austral, Arturo Schofield, for the crimes of water pollution and complicity in fraudulently obtaining state bonuses.
The prosecutor's office subsequently reached an alternative solution with the salmon farming company, which agreed to return all the funds obtained.
The firm agreed to pay the treasury more than 40 billion pesos. "It was a conditional suspension, and they must meet a series of conditions for three years for the case to be dismissed," the prosecutor said.
The remaining executives opted to go to trial.
According to the indictment, from 2016 to 2019, the company reported lower salmon stocking, mortality, and harvest rates. This resulted in environmental impacts. Salmon farming is polluting and is administratively regulated to prevent harmful effects on the environment.
In this regard, overstocking, overfeeding, and salmon faeces caused damage to farms, the seabed, and the water column.
