(Bloomberg) -- Chile’s billionaire Luksic family is seeking €217 million ($226 million) in compensation from Banco Santander SA, PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP and others in connection to the collapse of a Spanish lender seven years ago.
Aeris Invest, a Luxembourg-based financial holding company owned by South America’s second wealthiest family, is demanding the payment to cover losses incurred as shareholders of Banco Popular, after the lender went bankrupt and was taken over by Santander in 2017, according to legal documents seen by Bloomberg.
Aeris had previously said it had recorded €113 million in losses from its stake in Popular. Representatives for the Luksic family’s holding company, PwC and Banco Santander declined to comment.
The family became Popular shareholders in 2017, as the lender was on the verge of falling into bankruptcy. Shortly afterwards, Popular was taken over by Santander for €1, in a deal brokered by European regulators which sought to protect the broader banking industry. The Chilean family has repeatedly clashed with Santander since then.
The Luksic family, under matriarch Iris Fontbona, has a net worth of $29.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It controls London-listed Antofagasta Plc, one of the world’s largest copper producers, as well as lender Banco de Chile, brewer CCU and shipping company CSAV, among others.
PwC was Popular’s auditor at the time of the collapse.
The Luksic claim is not the only one against Santander, PwC and former Popular executives. They have also been dragged to court by a group of Popular debt-holders, including Pacific Investment Management Co. and Anchorage Capital Group LLC, who are demanding compensation for a combined €1.13 billion.
In March, Spain’s National Court ended a years-long investigation into the collapse of Popular and proposed that several of the bank’s executives at the time stand trial. Although Santander doesn’t have any criminal responsibility for Popular’s collapse, it does have subsidiary civil liability and can potentially be made to assume economic claims.
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