Marine Harvest former manager, Álvaro Jiménez. (Photo:SalmonChile)
CHILETuesday, March 31, 2015, 23:30 (GMT + 9)
The Criminal Justice finally resolved to dismiss General Marine Harvest’s former manager Alvaro Jimenez lawsuit filed in 2011 by the Norwegian company after accusing him of breaching the corporation act.
The entrepreneur welcomed the favourable ruling and announced he will present legal actions against the worldwide largest salmon producer, Pulso reported.
The conflict began in September 2011 when the Norwegian multinational firm filed suit against Jimenez on the grounds that he had "deliberately concealed" participating indirectly in the profits of Salmones Sur Austral.
While the entrepreneur was not a shareholder, there was an agreement between his company Inversiones Monasterio (100 per cent his and his wife’s ownership) with one of the shareholders of Sur Austral, Inversiones Petrohué.
According to the investigation, in mid-2009 Jimenez agreed on commercial contracts with the firm Salmones Sur Austral to lease two production centres and the sale of smolts, in the midst of the health crisis that hit the Chilean salmon farming industry due to the spread of an outbreak of the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus.
The Norwegian firm estimates that it had stopped earning between USD 10 million and USD 20 million, which it would have stopped receiving because of particular businesses are presumed to have been hidden by the former executive during the two years he was the senior manager of the Chilean subsidiary, between April 2008 and January 2011.
After this favourable outcome for Jimenez, the judgment is still pending in the civil courts, in the 14th Civil Court of Santiago. As it was reported by Pulso, "the cause entered testing stage and it is estimated that only in the second half of the year, a sentence would be issued".
In June 2013, the Arbitration Centre of the Chamber of Commerce of Santiago also ruled in favour of the executive and ordered Marine Harvest to pay damages amounting to USD 14 million to Salmones Sur Austral.
Marine Harvest considered that this ruling was "mistaken" and contained "an ominous message for the business ethics and the duties of loyalty."