The Penta case (or

Penta Penta may refer to: Places * , an Italian hamlet (') of Fisciano, Salerno * Penta-di-Casinca, a French municipality of Corsica * Penta, Chhattisgarh, a town in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, India * , a small river in Lithuania Other * Pent ...

- SQM, since the two cases are related) is a criminal case brought against Grupo Penta (or Empresas Penta), a Chilean holding company, and employees of the Chilean National Tax System (SII). Key employees of the firm have been convicted of committing

tax fraud Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...

by creating fake invoices in the National Tax System (SII). These funds were then directed to the political campaigns of mainly

UDI Udi may refer to: Places * Udi, Enugu, a local government areas and city in Nigeria * Udi, a place in the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, India People * Udi Gal (born 1979), Israeli Olympic sailor * Udi Vaks (born 1979), Israeli Olympic judoka ...

(far right wing) politicians as campaign contributions. Several Penta employees, as some of their family members, have been convicted of tax evasion,

bribery Bribery is the Offer and acceptance, offering, Gift, giving, Offer and acceptance, receiving, or Solicitation, soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With reg ...

, and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

. Both directors of Penta Bank, Carlos Alberto Délano and Carlos Eugenio Lavín, were penalized with paying a fine, spending a few days in a special prison for economic crimes, and attending mandatory ethics classes. Update 2 December 2015: The former president of the UDI political party Jovino Novoa is sentenced to 3 years parole (pena remitida) for tax crimes. Here are the defendants from Penta: Here are the defendants from the SII: Here are some of the politicians to whom Penta funneled funds. Others charged:

References

{{Reflist Legal history of Chile Corruption in Chile