The legal representative of CATERPILLAR LEASING CHILE S.A. (“CLC”) was denounced for the alleged commission of the crime of illicit appropriation, due to the fact that the company had supposedly signed a debt acknowledgement and joint contract with the aggrieved party to grant with the finance for the acquisition of CAT machinery, which is why the aggrieved party owed CLC a sum of money that would be paid in instalments. For this reason, a first and preferential rank chattel guarantee contract was celebrated in favor of CLC.
However, the alleged aggrieved party failed to pay the instalments agreed with CLC, which is why CLC notified the aggrieved party with the early acceleration of all the agreed instalments, in accordance with the debt acknowledgement and joint contract. Nevertheless, the aggrieved party chose not to pay what was owed to the company.
As a result, CLC filed a judicial requirement at the judicial authority, which was declared well-founded, and the equipment that was the subject of the guarantee was seized. Consequently, the alleged victim voluntarily handed over the property to CLC; however, a criminal complaint was filed for the crime of illicit appropriation.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office, after an exhaustive analysis of the facts and our defense arguments, ordered the closure of the investigation, as it considered that the typical elements for the configuration of the criminal offence were not present; therefore, it was not possible to continue with the criminal prosecution against CLC.
The opposing party appealed against the Prosecutor’s decision; however, the hierarchically superior prosecutor’s office took the same view, ordering the case to be definitively closed.
