Two days of in-person hearings were held at the Commercial Court of England and Wales, within the framework of the judicial dispute between the Chinese giant Joyvio and the businessman Isidoro Quirogaone of the precursors of salmon farming in Chile.
The conflict began in 2019, when Joyvio acquired Australis Seafoods in US$921 million and two years later, the Asian group alleged that the former owner withheld crucial information during the sale, specifically about overproduction in several salmon fattening centers, which exceeded the limits allowed by environmental regulations. For its part, Quiroga’s defense maintains that Joyvio’s judicial strategy seeks to justify its own failures in the management of the company after the purchase.
During the arguments, the court revealed that Isidoro Quiroga presented a brief in which he argued the reasons for returning to Chile. In the document to which Pulso had access, the businessman said that he never had the intention of “remaining in England in the long term having always considered Chile as my home.”
“On December 4, 2023, I arrived in Chile with my wife, initially with the idea of spending Christmas and New Year with my family. Over the next few weeks, we considered our future. Towards the beginning of 2024, we had decided to stay in Chile permanently to be closer to our friends, family (including my second youngest son, Héctor Javier, who had returned to Chile this year) and business relationships. Besides, Political stability has returned to Chile, after two failed plebiscites to modify the Constitution, the constitution now remains as it was before. We have remained in Chile since then,” the former controller of the salmon farm stated in his presentation.
Quiroga also noted that since January 1, 2024 he has been a tax resident in Chile and that he maintained his tax resident status in the United Kingdom throughout the 2023/2024 financial year, but that he is no longer so. On 25 April 2024, his UK accounting firm submitted a Form 85 to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to notify the change in his residence.
“I intend to stay in Chile indefinitely. “I have no plans to move back to England or any other country,” He stressed in the letter that complements the first statement he made in September 2023.
Quiroga added that his Tier 1 investor visa expires on July 24, 2021, that he has no intention of asking for an extension and that he is in the process of liquidating a portfolio of UK corporate bonds. In addition, he maintained that he has a three-year lease for an apartment in Hans Place, London, which expires on July 21. “I have no intention of renewing the lease, which I have confirmed to the estate agents.”
The hearings were attended by Joyvio’s lawyers, Alberto Eguigurenpartner of the Russi & Eguiguren studio and Jorge Bofill, partner of Bofill, Escobar and Silva, who attribute Quiroga’s return to Chile to the judicial conflict they face in England. According to Alberto Eguiguren, “Isidoro Quiroga was forced to return to live in Chile to try to evade justice in the United Kingdom,” he said.
From the businessman’s family office, Benjamín Consulting and Investments They denounced that “a year ago the Joyvio Group announced in the press, as part of its extortion strategy, that they were going to seek the extradition of Isidoro Quiroga from England so that he could face justice in Chile. And now, that Mr. Quiroga returned to the country more than six months ago, they claim that he does so to evade English justice. This obvious contradiction is another desperate maneuver by the Joyvio Group to try to justify the failure of its strategy.”
For this reason, Quiroga’s society accuses that “this change in discourse seeks to distort reality.”when the evidence shows that the Joyvio Group had at its disposal all the background information of Australis in the process of due diligence, including, by the way, all those that the Joyvio Group falsely indicated through the media and in its complaints as documents that had been hidden from it, a concealment that it would have only recently realized, we are told, more than 4 years after the transaction”.
Quiroga has legal advice in Chile from the study Claro & Cía, and in particular his partner Cristóbal Eyzaguirre. In England he works with the studio Pallas Partners LLP.
Among the various legal actions pending, Joyvio has filed a criminal complaint for fraud, alleging that Quiroga and his associates deliberately deceived buyers. The complaint also mentions possible crimes of unfair administration and concealment of information from the Financial Market Commission.
In addition, Joyvio requested in the United States the production of bank documents related to Quiroga to support his accusations in Chilean and English courts. However, a court in Florida suspended this request, stating that the relevance of the documents had not been adequately demonstrated.
For their part, Isidoro Quiroga and his legal team have defended their actions, describing Joyvio’s accusations as unfounded and extortionate. “As the evidence also demonstrates, the Chinese administration of Australis was not only informed of the actual and projected production of each cultivation center, but also expressly ordered the local administration to maintain and even increase production levels. This is demonstrated by clear, precise and forceful emails that directly involve the President of the Joyvio Group, Shaopeng Chen,” says the statement sent by Asesorías Benjamín.
