Landau, January 9, 2026. The Humboldt penguin population has declined sharply in recent years. The causes are bird flu H5N1 and El Niño, but according to Chilean authorities, (small-scale) fishing and destructive construction projects are also to blame. The controversial “Dominga” mining and port project by the Andes Iron company has the potential to cause significant damage to or destroy the most important breeding areas in northern Chile. The Andes Iron company and its “Dominga” project are currently entangled in another bribery scandal. On December 30, 2025, the online newspaper El Comunal La Higuera reported on the launch of investigations against the company on suspicion of bribery, influence peddling, and other crimes in the context of environmental court decisions in the Dominga case (1). These decisions were reported on these sites under the headlines “The environmental court exceeds its authority” (December 2024) and “Illegal ruling in favor of Dominga” (February 2025). The following text reflects the gist of the article in the online newspaper El Comunal La Higuera (1) and supplements it with detailed comments for better context:
Prosecutor's office opens investigation into Andes Iron and “Dominga” to determine whether court rulings in favor of the project were influenced by bribes
The prosecutor's office confirmed the launch of an investigation into the owners of the “Dominga” mining project on suspicion of bribery, influence peddling, and other crimes. The investigation was triggered by a complaint filed by socialist lawmakers Daniel Manouchehri and Daniella Cicardini. The lawmakers gathered information and forwarded it to the relevant regional prosecutor's office in Los Lagos. Those affected are the Délano Méndez family (76% stake in the company) and the Garcés Silva family (14% stake in the company), as well as company executives.
With regard to Carlos Alberto Délano, we recall that he was the owner of the “Dominga” property through the company Minera Activa Uno SpA, together with the Piñera Morel family (2). Délano, known among his friends as “Choo”, who was the controller of the Penta Group (3) and was convicted of repeated tax offenses and illegal political financing in the Penta case. He also became “famous” because he and Carlos Eugenio Lavin were only sentenced to a fine and 100 hours of ethics classes on probation.
In the current case, according to socialist MPs, Andes Iron (the lead company in the Dominga project) is alleged to have paid more than 250 million Chilean pesos (€ 238,969) to the law firm of Gabriel Silver (a former MP), Eduardo Lagos, and Mario Vargas. Lagos and Vargas were charged in the Muñeca Bielorrusa affair. The affair is linked to the Hermosilla case (4) and revealed that Supreme Court judges were bribed to rule in favor of the financiers.
According to the news platform Reportea (5), the law firm received ten transfers from Andes Iron between March and December 2023, even though lawyers Lagos and Vargas were not acting as representatives of the mining company in court proceedings. The payments coincide with the review of the “Dominga” project by the First Environmental Court of Antofagasta, in which “Dominga” received a positive ruling, as it later did before the Supreme Court. According to the report, the lawyers also transferred 18 million Chilean pesos (€ 17,206) to the wife of Jean Pierre Matus, a judge at the Supreme Court. During the period in question, the judge also issued a ruling in favor of the mining company. The public prosecutor's office will investigate, among other things, why the judge's wife received the money.
Initially, it was claimed that the payments were part of legal advice in the Dominga case. However, lawyer Patricio Leyton, who represented the mining company in court, assured that he was unaware that Lagos, Vargas, and Silver had provided services for Dominga. He stated “,,,, they played no role in the lawsuits we are pursuing on behalf of the company.”
Later, the payments to the law firm were justified in information provided by Andes Iron to this media outlet with a report on the legal follow-up. However, it quickly became apparent that the reports were copies of public information circulating on the internet.
Representative Daniel Manouchehri (PS) said on social media that "it is obvious that no one pays 250 million Chilean pesos (€ 238,969) for copy-paste reports. Therefore, it must be clarified: What was the money for that ‘Dominga’ paid to the lawyers? Were bribes paid to judges who were involved in the rulings in favor of “Dominga”? What role did Judge Jean Pierre Matus play, considering that his wife was paid by the lawyers? What happened in the environmental courts with the controversial rulings in favor of Dominga? This case smells like corruption."
At the time of this publication, neither the Azerta agency nor Andes Iron had officially commented on the investigation announced by the public prosecutor's office.
W.K.
Notes
For better readability, the generic masculine form is used in this article. Unless otherwise indicated, the terms used to refer to persons in this article refer to all genders.
(1) Fiscalía abre investigación contra Andes Iron y Dominga para ver si fallos judiciales a favor del proyecto fueron por eventuales sobornos, El Comunal, December 30, 2025, translated with the free version of deepl.
(2) Sebastián Piñera (1949-2024) was a billionaire Chilean businessman and politician. He was president of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and from 2018 to 2022. During his second term, he appointed Judge Jean Pierre Matus, mentioned in the article, to the Supreme Court. According to the Pandora Papers, Piñera was involved in offshore deals with “Dominga.” At the time, the public prosecutor's office investigated possible tax evasion and conflicts of interest. Piñera denied the allegations.
(3) The “Penta case” (Pentagate) was a major corruption scandal in Chile involving the Penta group of companies. The group evaded taxes and bribed politicians through fake invoices and illegal party donations, mainly to the right-wing conservative UDI party. This led to convictions, prison sentences for managers and politicians, and a deep crisis of confidence in Chilean politics.
4) Luis Hermosilla is a well-known Chilean lawyer and political figure. In August 2024, he was charged by the Chilean judiciary with tax offenses, bribery, and money laundering. He was remanded in custody for the duration of the investigation. The lawyer is considered the mastermind behind the biggest corruption scandal in Chile's recent history.
(5) Reportea is an independent, investigative Chilean news platform https://reportea.cl
translated by Angelika Veelken using and reviewing deepl.com
