Police arrest suspect in million-peso fraud against automobile credit companies

SANTIAGO. -  Police from the Vehicle Search Service (SEBV) have uncovered a case of fraud amounting to 200 million pesos that was carried out by two individuals working to falsely obtain automobile credit from the Forum and Mitsui credit companies.

The police discovered more details after arresting the second suspect in the fraud case, who has been identified as Claudio Enrique Bernal Santibáñez and who (according to police) masterminded the scheme along with the former head of the Círculo Toyota car dealership, Álvaro Felipe León Aguilar, who has already been charged in the case in Iquique.

The plan involved using the credit records of very poor individuals that did not have problems with DICOM, which were then placed into falsified salary files for more than 700 thousand pesos, preferably in the 18 de Septiembre clearing house.

According to Police Captain José Correa, who is the head of operations for the unit, “the modus operandi for the group was to provide fraudulent credit information, locating people that were free of (credit) problems, usually very poor people, which they used to obtain credit and then provide the vehicles”.

Capitan Correa added that the suspects “not only  took the vehicle that they were acquiring, but would also add another”, which was what made for the fraud, since the credit for the second automobile was unpaid and the vehicle was later sold in other regions of the country, with the profits going to the con artists.