The latest lawsuit filed by Chilean billionaire and former Australis owner Isidoro Quiroga against Chinese seafood firm Joyvio, which currently owns Chilean salmon-farming firm Australis, is accusing the company of employing threats, witness tampering, and false statements in its legal action against Quiroga.
Joyvio purchased Australis from Quiroga in 2018 for USD 921 million (EUR 808 million). Following the sale, Joyvio alleged Quiroga engaged in hiding, falsifying, and adulterating critical information during the sales process – including what the company now deems was deliberate overproduction to inflate salmon production numbers and, therefore, the company’s valuation when it came time to negotiate a sale.
In 2023, Joyvio filed a lawsuit against Quiroga seeking USD 1.22 billion (EUR 1.07 billion) in restitution and damages and accused Quiroga and former Australis executives of fraud and unfair administration. The defendants have called the accusations “falsehoods and slander,” questioning why the accusations surfaced years after the purchase. In January 2025, Chile’s Prosecutor's Office accused Quiroga and former executives Martín Guiloff and Santiago Garretón of fraud and unfair administration in relation to the suit.
The defendants have now responded, with the Quiroga family filing a complaint in the Fourth Court of Guarantee of Santiago accusing Australis’s current CEO Andrés Lyon and the Chinese representatives of the company – Shaopeng Chen, Yonggun Huang, Tang Yin, Qingtong Zhou, and Xuanli Wu – of obstructing the investigation into the dispute.
According to a new 99-page suit which accuses Joyvio executives of foul play, Joyvio Executive President Shaopeng Chen threatened the Chilean state after the sale, saying Chinese authorities felt that not only Joyvio, but the Chinese government in general, had been scammed in the deal.
The document also accuses Australis CEO Andrés Lyon of emitting false statements, despite having information indicating otherwise, and supposedly withholding key information during due process.
Another more serious accusation in the lawsuit has to do with witness tampering.
According to the document, Joyvio representatives threatened people to testify on the firm’s behalf post-sale, including Australis’s former legal manager Rubén Henríquez.
“Mr. Henríquez indicates that he was summoned to a meeting on 7 November 2022 … [where] Joyvio's lawyers told him that they 'had to' file legal actions against all the executives of Australis, including him [and] that the corresponding convictions would not be executed against Mr. Henríquez, as long as he signed a collaboration agreement and testified in favor of Joyvio in different judicial instances in a manner that was 'pertinent' and 'useful' to his interests,” the lawsuit states.
Henríquez reportedly said that Lyon and a local Chilean corporate lawyer told him they had information to criminally implicate him but would offer him a “golden bonus” if he were to collaborate on Joyvio’s behalf.
Henríquez refused to sign the agreement, according to the document, and Joyvio then “made good on their threat; on 18 March 2025, through their company Food Investment SpA, they filed a new extension of the lawsuit for the crime of fraud – this time, directed against Mr. Rubén Henríquez.”
Other stakeholders, including relatives of deceased former Australis CEO Ricardo Misraji reportedly said they had also been contacted by Joyvio representatives and were threatened with the release of sensitive information – such as properties, investments, and transactions – unless they collaborated with Joyvio during the investigation, according to Quiroga’s legal team.
Overall, Asesorías e Inversiones Benjamín – the investment firm that represents the interests of the Quiroga family – maintains that Joyvio and Australis executives promoted a criminal investigation based on criminal complaints filed fully knowing that the accusations were false.
“[Joyvio] had, in their possession, records that clearly and conclusively ruled out their accusations,” the investment firm said in a statement to SeafoodSource.
More specifically, information on the historical and projected harvests of each of Australis’s salmon-farming centers – including the overproduction – was provided to Joyvio “in a complete, timely, and repeated manner before, during, and after the due diligence process,” Inversiones Benjamín said.
Joyvio’s obstruction of justice forms part of “the studied strategy of judicial, communicational, diplomatic, and personal extortion deployed by Joyvio against Isidoro Quiroga and his collaborators,” the firm summarized.
Representatives from Austrails and Joyvio claim Quiroga’s latest move is a sign of desperation and “one of his usual maneuvers.”
“In view of the continuous judicial setbacks suffered, he has filed this action in order to hinder the progress of the main investigation associated with the complaints for fraud and unfair administration that we have filed against him two years ago,” the representatives said.
In April, Joyvio Food completely divested from Australis, selling its stake to a fellow firm also under the umbrella of the Joyvio Group for the symbolic price of CNY 1.00 (USD 0.14, EUR 0.12). Australis was transferred to Joyvio Premium Fresh to consider “potential strategic options” for Australis, which may include attracting new investors to enhance working capital and to support future expansion plans.
The restructuring is also expected to strengthen Joyvio Food’s net asset position and “create room for future operational improvements,” according to Joyvio parent company Legend Holdings’ filing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Joyvio Food has been struggling financially, and its losses have increased the risk of the company getting delisted from the exchange.
