This Wednesday concluded a saga that had lasted almost 15 years and that left a former mayor off the political map and questioned local officials over their ties to the football business.
This Wednesday, September 13th, at 1:00 p.m., the 15th Guarantee Court of Santiago gave its verdict Jaime Pavez (former PPD), former mayor of La Pintana, sentenced to one year and one day suspension from medium employment and to pay a fine of $1,750,000 for the crime of embezzlement of public funds. The storyline that led to this outcome spans more than a decade.
The exedile was one of the founders of the football team “Club Deportivo Municipal La Pintana”, which began competing in the amateur league in 2009. But soon after walking, the problems began. Local education professionals complained that some players’ salaries were paid with Preferential School Subsidy (SEP) funds, a record that was reported to the auditor at the time.
Four years later, a decision by the team’s founders gave the plot a complete twist. On April 16, 2013, former mayor Pavez, together with municipal representatives from his inner circle, founded the Santiago Sur Joint Stock Company, a corporation that took over the management of the team that until then belonged to the Municipal Sports Corporation. The goal was one thing: to bring the new football team “Deportes La Pintana” into professional football.
The role of the former president of the ANFP
Despite being a private entity, Santiago Sur SADP used various municipal venues to host its partners’ meetings, which was audited by the Comptroller’s Office.
In addition to the constant irregularities of the company under the leadership of the former mayor Pavez, there was another fact that would be the main reason for the investigations later carried out by the South Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office.
In 2014, Deportes La Pintana was on the verge of entering the second tier of professional football, leaving years of amateur competitions behind. To achieve this goal, Santiago Sur had to pay out $35 million, a demand then demanded by the government of the former ANFP president. Sergio Jadue to be able to compete in professional football.
In May of the same year, the ANFP Council took place to vote on the integration of Deportes La Pintana and four other clubs into professional football. A 2020 report revealed the minutes of that council, in which Jadue suggested to Chilean football officials that they agree to host Pavez’s team.
“I ask you that, in order to fulfill the obligations that we have as a council, everything is ratified in the approval of the creation of the five clubs: Mejillones, Ovalle, La Pintana, Maipo-Quilicura and Malloco. “All together, all together like Los Jaivas.”
In this way, the goal of the former mayor and his inner circle in the municipality to transform Deportes La Pintana into a professional competitive team was achieved. While the former president of the ANFP, who is now awaiting trial in the United States for the FIFA-GATE corruption scandal, wanted to establish a close connection with the then mayor of La Pintana, since the football association was interested in a piece of land in this municipality the new To build the Chilean national team complex. After the revelation of these scandals, this “dream” did not come true, as Jadue went to Miami and Pavez began to be investigated by the South State Attorney’s Office.
Thus, the problems for the former PPD mayor worsened with reports from the comptroller reporting irregularities in the resources of the sports club and with a criminal complaint from Claudia Pizarro, then councilor of La Pintana, whose lawsuit opened an investigation into embezzlement of public funds.
The trial was conducted by the public prosecutor Paulina Diaz who has been investigating the case since 2017, which found its final chapter this Thursday, September 14, when the 15th Guarantee Court of Santiago announced the verdict against the former mayor of La Pintana.
Fine and suspension from public office
The investigation was able to prove that Pavez “in his capacity as Mayor of the Municipality of La Pintana and President of the Board of Directors of the Municipal Sports Society of La Pintana signed a check for the sum of 35 million US dollars, debited to the account of…” the latter in the BCI bank and use of an amount received as a municipal grant intended for the integration of La Pintana Sports Club into the second division of professional football.”
In other words, the company led by Pavez financed the registration of “Deportes La Pintana” in professional football with municipal funds, thereby benefiting private interests and not those of the municipality, according to the court ruling.
For the plaintiff’s attorney Pablo Norambuena The core of the accusation is the use of municipal funding for private purposes.
“A purely private entity (Santiago Sur) cannot be supported by public funds, which must be intended to meet the needs of the entire community,” the lawyer representing La Pintana tells Mega Investiga.
Norambuena highlights the role of her client, Mayor Pizarro, who filed the complaint in 2017 that ultimately led to the former mayor’s conviction. With this in mind, the DC fighter celebrated the conviction. “In 2014, I was the only councilor to vote against the transfer of $48 million from the municipality to the Sports Corporation to finance the registration of an SA-managed club with the ANFP,” Pizarro said.
According to Norambuena, this transfer, approved in 2014, was requested from the municipal council of La Pintana, with a maneuver intended to disguise the true objective.
“They were presented as necessary funds to spin off the sports club from the ANFA. But what was behind it was that they were ultimately used to pay for the participation rights in the second league, since the ANFA did not charge any fees for leaving,” he reveals the former prosecutor.
Jaime Pavez was fired as a city councilor in 2018 after he was given a notable disservice for failing to report debts of 1,200 million owed to Corfo by the municipality he led for 24 years. In 2024, he served the sentence of inability to run for public office, and so the former PPD fighter held political meetings in La Pintana to launch a new political campaign ahead of next year’s local elections. However, the judiciary complicated his ambitions by banning him from holding public office for a year.
