A business man and tech guru fighting extradition charges from Chile over fraud charges, Alberto Chang-Rajii, has claimed that he is guilty until proven innocent back home, and that a Chilean prosecution campaign against individuals with a high net worth is the motive behind extradition charges.

Mr Chang-Rajii is charged with defrauding investors some $100 million in Chile, and was reported by US and Chile media as having ‘fled to Malta’. 

In his testimony, Mr Chang-Rajii put forward arguments that he is in Malta because of tax efficiency as well as legitimate business interests, claiming he was the lead investor for a Manoel Island development.

Mr Chang-Rajii claimed in open court that “Chilean law says that the prosecutor can find you guilty just because he thinks you are guilty, and then you have to prove your innocence”.

Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, presiding over the case, asked him to repeat this, to which he said:

“The prosecution is able to bring anybody into justice and charge them with whatever they think, only on their assumption, and if, as with my case as this was an assumption, they fabricated this, the prosecution put many people under duress. Such people know that if they do not collaborate they would be sent to jail.”

Mr Chang-Rajii, in order to display why he believes he would not be given a fair trial, outlined how his mother was treated by the prosecution back home in Chile. He explained that after she was arrested for complicity to fraud, she was granted bail under one sole condition, that should she change her home address she would have to inform the authorities.

He claimed that Chilean media were so aggressive towards his mother, she accepted the invitation to go stay with her sister in Lima, Peru for one week. Mr Chang-Rajii claimed that she had bought a return ticket, and upon her arrival at the border, the authorities arrested her without a warrant and without her having breached any conditions. He said that she was ultimately imprisoned for four months and then placed on house arrest for a further five months.

When asked about accusations of defrauding investors some $100 million, he said “there is no fraud because [he has] conducted business for 15 years and in a very open way”.

“After 15 years of business and I do not owe a penny to any [commercial] bank in the world....before 5 April every cent was paid back to investors. Why would I start defrauding? When the government attacks without concrete proof of money laundering and fraud, because of this banks reacted by freezing the funds. At that point I am rendered unable to fulfil my duty,” he said. He argued that allegations surfaced, following which the banks froze his assets and this made him unable to pay back investors.

He also argued that the Chilean prosecution made him “the poster child of what you shouldn’t do”.

“The prosecution in Chile, acting as a hand of the fiscal entity, was entrapping people not to leave the country and the fact that, If I may say, I am a well known individual in Chile. This is because I invested a lot in start-ups world-wide, such as Uber, Snapchat and Foursquare. I am also the director of an NGO.....I hold many titles. All these allegations came out of nowhere in Easter, while I was not even in the country,” he said.

His claims about the Chilean authorities entrapping people not to leave the country stem from his assertion that the authorities embarked on a campaign to stop Chilean individuals with a high net worth from being taxed outside of Chile. Lawyer Vincenne Vella, representing the Attorney General, took acception to the mention of a number of individuals in Mr Chang-Rajii's testimony who were not present to answer for the claims he was making. Magistrate Bugeja did not object to the names included in Mr Chang-Rajii's testimony because they were not mentioned in any libelous or defamatory way. 

The Attorney General's office will be cross examining Mr Chang-Rajii as from Monday, and the decision whether he will be extradited or not is expected to be concluded by the end of next week.

Lawyers Stefano Filletti and Stephen Tonna Lowell represented Mr Chang-Rahii, while Attorney General lawyer Vincienne Vella appeared for the Attorney General.