Joyvio, the Chinese company that controls Australis Seafoods, will ask the 4th Santiago Guarantee Court to authorize it to prosecute businessman Isidoro Quiroga and former executives of the salmon producer on its own. The hearing to discuss the request has been scheduled for March 15, 2027.
According to BioBioChile, the company chose that route after the court rejected reopening the investigation into alleged fraud and disloyal management offenses. The defendants have not been indicted or convicted.
On Friday, October 9, prosecutor Juan Pablo Araya announced that the Public Prosecutor's Office (the prosecution service) would not proceed with the case. According to El Mostrador, after about three and a half years of investigation, the prosecutor concluded that there was insufficient evidence to justify a trial. Judge Paulina Moya, for her part, rejected the investigative steps requested to reopen it.
A decision not to proceed means that the prosecution service ends the criminal prosecution without filing an indictment. In response, the private complainant (the affected party participating in the proceedings) may request authorization to pursue the prosecution. That mechanism allows the complainant to ask the judge for permission to pursue the charges independently and potentially bring the case to trial.
César Ramos, Joyvio's lawyer acting as private prosecutor, explained that the request to reopen the investigation sought to complete expert assessments of possible financial losses and a forensic analysis of emails. In his view, the court found technical difficulties in justifying those investigative steps at this stage.
"Clearly, we will not have the results of those investigative steps, but that does not mean we consider the case closed," Ramos said. The lawyer maintained that the private prosecution had gathered evidence before and after charges were formally presented and that, after years of investigation, it had "hundreds of pieces of evidence."
The prosecutor's closure of the case ended the precautionary measures imposed on the defendants. Joyvio argued that their termination was a procedural consequence of the prosecution service's decision and did not amount to an acquittal or mean that a court had rejected the reported allegations.
The defense has a different interpretation. According to El Mostrador, Asesorías e Inversiones Benjamín declared itself "very pleased and satisfied" with the ruling. In a statement, it maintained that the evidence ruled out deception or fraud in the sale and recalled that an arbitration tribunal had unanimously concluded that the buyers were not deceived.
The dispute began in 2019, when Joyvio paid Quiroga US$920 million for Australis. The conflict reached courts in New York, Florida, Delaware and England, in addition to the civil and criminal proceedings opened in Chile.
In arbitration, a ruling by two votes to one had ordered Quiroga to pay US$300 million as a price adjustment for new environmental standards introduced after the sale. The Court of Appeals later annulled that award, and Joyvio withdrew its legal actions in the United States.
Whether the criminal case continues depends on the court's decision at the March 15, 2027 hearing. "That will be the discussion that takes place from March 15 onward," Ramos said. The sources do not report the RIT or RUC (the numbers used by the court and the prosecution service to identify the case).
