A criminal court in Punta Arenas, Chile, has sentenced former executives from salmon-farming firm Nova Austral for environmental crimes.
In June, the court found defendants Drago Covacich, a former regional manager at Nova Austral, and Nicos Nicolaides, a former CEO of the firm, guilty of the repeated crime of water pollution between December 2016 and June 2019. The court also said that defendants Isaac Olivet-Besson and Rigoberto Garrido, former area managers at the firm, were guilty as accessories to the crime. Further, the court found Covacich guilty of providing false information to the supervisory authority investigating the pollution.
Covacich and Nicolaides were sentenced to 800 days in prison and fined an amount equivalent to CLP 1.6 million (USD 1,700, EUR 1,450) each. However, the court granted both of them “conditional remission of the sentence,” meaning they will be able to stay out of jail as long as they meet certain conditions – similar to being on probation – during the entirety of their 800-day sentence. Nicolaides was fined an additional amount equivalent to CLP 138,000 (USD 150, EUR 125) for failing to tell the truth in a statement given under oath.
Olivet-Besson and Garrido were sentenced to 41 days of prison with conditional remission for one year, as well as a fine equivalent to CLP 276,000 (USD 290, EUR 250).
In this criminal case, prosecutor Sebastián González alleged that besides the falsification of mortality reports, for which Nova Austral came under investigation in 2019, the company had stocked salmon beyond legal limits and the now-convicted individuals introduced sand and chemicals into the waters at the company’s salmon farms located in Alberto de Agostini National Park to cover up the pollution caused by that overproduction.
González had reportedly requested sentences ranging from three to five years in prison, as well as fines of up to CLP 686 million (USD 728,000, EUR 634,000).
The court also made the decision to acquit Covacich, Nicolaides, Olivet-Besson, and Garrido of charges seeking to incriminate them with fraud.
In their capacities as executives of Nova Austral, the four were accused of participating in deceitfully obtaining CLP 59 billion (USD 62.5 million, EUR 54.5 million) for the firm through bonuses, using the nation’s Navarino Law to do so. Under the Navarino Law, the government offers a series of tax and customs benefits for industrial companies that operate in Chile’s southernmost Magallanes region.
On a civil level, Chile’s State Defense Council also filed a claim against the firm’s former executives for compensation on behalf of the nation’s Treasury. However, the court rejected this measure, too, saying the window of time allowed for the filing of such claims had passed.
Following the events under investigation in the case, Nova Austral completely restructured its executive staff and sought to strengthen its internal practices and controls.
The firm also underwent a change of ownership in September 2024 following the judicial reorganization that the company underwent, whereby the Larta Investment Group took over as sole owner. As such, the company has a different management team, new shareholders, and a different board of directors than those in place at the time of the events outlined in the case.
