SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet voluntarily testified earlier this week with the national prosecutor’s office as part of a probe into alleged tax crimes by her daughter-in-law Natalia Compagnon, the government said late on Friday.
While Bachelet has not been accused of any wrongdoing, the case has been one of a number of high-profile money-in-politics scandals to come to light over the last year, sowing discontent among Chileans and dragging the President’s popularity to all-time lows.
Interior Minister Jorge Burgos disclosed on Friday that he informed Bachelet that he had received a request from the prosecutor’s office for the President to voluntarily testify in the probe.
“I’m available to testify immediately,” Bachelet said, according to Burgos. A Chilean court in January officially pegged Compagnon as a criminal suspect, as investigators look into allegations that she issued false tax declarations, misrepresented her income, and issued fraudulent invoices relating to a real estate concern she half-owns.
