RTFA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7028503….

A Chilean judge has ordered the arrest of five children and the widow of former military ruler Augusto Pinochet on charges of embezzlement.

The warrants were among 23 issued as part of a corruption investigation into state funds held in US bank accounts.

Gen Pinochet, who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, died in December 2006 before he could stand trial on charges of corruption and human rights abuses.

That lovable South American fascist dictator, who is already dead, is still being hounded, karmically, through his living relatives. Even though his assets were frozen circa 2000, it seems Pinochet and his family still had access to millions of dollars, which were being laundered through (wait for it) Riggs Bank.

As you might have inferred from the stream of posts currently on RTFA (Riggs’ Pinochet guilty plea, Riggs sight-seeing, and Riggs ten dollar bill), this bank has a long and colorful history. Yet, the bank collapsed anyway, and this is rather surprising. You see, Riggs was such an important bank in Washington DC that it financed the Mexican-American war and the Alaska purchase.

Weird. It probably doesn’t mean anything, except that Pinochet’s family is currently being arrested for the money that came from accounts held at Riggs Bank.

RTFA: http://library.thinkquest.org/2813/white/east.html

Riggs National Bank
1503 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
The Riggs Bank Building, completed in 1901, has been one of the city’s most prestigious financial institutions. Riggs has gained a symbolic status as the bank of official Washington, due to its proximity to the White House and the Treasury Department. Most presidents have even maintained an account or two here.

The bank lent $500,000 to army contractors in the first year alone of the Civil War. So powerful was the firm that the Riggs president even kept a desk in the main Treasury Building. Later banking reform under the Wilson Administration forced the company to state in its own building across the street.

Riggs Bank and its neighbor the American Security Site, stand at a site previously occupied by two buildings: the W.W. Corcoran Office Building, and the Branch Bank of the United States. Riggs Bank made its earlier home at the Branch Bank Building. It was here that President Lincoln deposited his pay during the Civil War. Later tenants of the buildings included the Chicago Times-Herald and the Chicago Evening Post. The buildings were torn down in the early 1900s and replaced with their current tenants.

Interesting sight-seeing, next time you’re in DC.