Serious Allegations: Dominga Paid $255 Million to Lagos and Vargas Law Firm in Key Year for Legal Victory

Between March and December 2023, the law firm of Mario Vargas and Eduardo Lagos —both currently in pre-trial detention due to an alleged bribery case involving judges known as the «Belarusian plot»— received monthly payments from Andes Iron, the company behind the controversial Dominga mining project.

According to an investigation by Reportea.cl, based on bank statements, the total amount transferred during this period reached $255.5 million (approximately USD 287,000).

The digital outlet, which accessed emails and financial records, highlighted the coincidence of these payments with a crucial year in Dominga’s legal strategy. In 2023, the legal steps taken brought the project, which aims to extract iron and copper in the Coquimbo region with an investment nearing USD 3 billion, to the verge of final approval, following several favorable rulings from environmental courts and the Supreme Court.

Massive Payments to Lagos and Vargas Law Firm

Bank statements for the firm Lagos, Vargas y Silber Asesorías Legales Limitada, consulted by Reportea, reveal ten consecutive transfers from Andes Iron.

The records indicate an initial payment of $17.7 million on March 30, 2023, followed by an unusually high payment of $56.9 million in April. Starting in May, payments stabilized at approximately $22 million monthly.

Payments from Andes Iron to Lagos, Vargas y Silber Asesorías Legales Limitada. (Reportea).

Each payment was accompanied by an invoice under a contract, as noted in the internal revenue service’s database, where it states: «legal advisory fees according to contract.» However, neither Lagos nor Vargas is listed as litigation lawyers for Dominga in any of the numerous legal proceedings the project has faced.

When asked about the reasons for these payments, Andes Iron’s communications deputy manager, José Antonio Edwards, did not respond. Sources from the law firm provided contradictory accounts to Reportea under anonymity: one stated that «legal memos» were prepared, but the service did not meet expectations; another mentioned it involved «judicial lobbying» tasks.

Dominga and Its Long Judicial Journey

The Dominga project has been at the center of a legal and environmental battle for over a decade. It entered the environmental assessment system in 2013, and was first rejected in 2017. Since then, it has experienced a back-and-forth of appeals between the Ministerial Committee —which has rejected it three times— and the Environmental Court of Antofagasta —which has ordered its reevaluation— with escalations to the Supreme Court.

In August 2021, the Environmental Evaluation Commission of Coquimbo approved the project. This victory, during Sebastián Piñera’s second presidency, was controversial due to a journalistic investigation revealing that the then-president’s family had sold their stake in the project in 2010, under a clause preventing the land from being declared a protected area.

Recent judicial chronology shows that on January 18, 2023, the Ministerial Committee rejected the project for the second time. Andes Iron, as it had previously, appealed to the Environmental Court, which, at the end of 2024, ruled in its favor again and ordered the Committee to vote anew under instructions that made rejection difficult.

When the Committee rejected the project for the third time in January 2025, the Environmental Court accepted another appeal from Andes Iron. The government and opposing organizations subsequently took the conflict to the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, seeking to resolve a jurisdictional dispute. In June 2025, the TC declared itself incompetent, and the Supreme Court avoided ruling, which was interpreted by Dominga as a tacit green light for its project.

As a result, only one appeal currently remains pending in the Court of Appeals of Antofagasta, which could alter the course of events.

Link Between Payments and Judicial Decisions

A central aspect of Reportea’s investigation is the link between the payments and favorable judicial decisions in the Supreme Court. The country’s highest tribunal has reviewed at least four cases related to Dominga. After an initial unfavorable ruling in 2019, subsequent rulings have favored the project.

Judge Jean Pierre Matus has been a recurring figure in these rulings; he authored the decision in May 2022 that rejected a resource from opponents, as well as the one in January 2024 that declared another resource inadmissible.

However, Matus has a known connection to the Lagos and Vargas firm: his wife, María Cecilia Ramírez, has worked for the lawyers. In fact, the same bank records from the firm show payments to Ramírez amounting to at least $18 million between 2023 and 2024.

Despite this, the investigative report made it clear that «there is no clarity on whether Matus was aware of the substantial advisory fees provided by those lawyers to the Dominga project, nor if his wife was involved in that work.»

Moreover, it was noted that Mario Vargas’s bank statements feature direct transfers from the minister.

«The first is dated July 31, 2022, for $600,000 with the note ‘magana the rest is the first transfer’; the second on August 2 of the same year, for $330,000, with the note ‘Balance Valley’; and the last on September 15, also in 2022, for $30,000, accompanied by the note ‘Baco’,» it reported.

In mid-2025, a controversy erupted because Matus was said to be the author of the ruling regarding resources presented by the government and opposition. The minister did not disqualify himself, and in September 2025, the Court declared the resources inadmissible. This ruling also received favorable votes from Minister Diego Simpertigue, who is currently under investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office, Congress, and the Judiciary for his connections with Lagos and Vargas concerning the «Belarusian plot.»

Reportea emphasized that it sought a statement from Minister Matus, but did not receive a response.

Distribution of Funds and Other Involved Parties

The report by journalist Nicolás Sepúlveda for the cited outlet revealed that the payments from Andes Iron did not remain in the firm’s account; rather, the usual practice of the firm, according to the statements, was to distribute funds immediately among the professionals serving the client.

According to this modus operandi, beneficiaries include former deputy Aldo Cornejo, who confirmed to Reportea that he received professional assignments from the firm for Dominga.

«In my case, I received a professional assignment for legal advisory and public positioning strategies for the company. You will understand that I cannot publicly disclose the professional relationship with a client. In any case, it is a normal relationship in the legitimate exercise of the profession,» he argued.

Records indicate that out of the total $255.5 million received by the law firm, at least $47.7 million went to Cornejo. This same former deputy worked with Lagos and Vargas for the Belarusian consortium Belaz Movitec (CBM), a company at the center of the «Belarusian plot» investigating alleged bribes to judges in exchange for favorable rulings for the company against Codelco.

Former deputy Gabriel Silber, a partner at the firm who is currently seeking to collaborate with the Prosecutor’s office, also received payments. Silber was unavailable to comment on his specific role in the Dominga case.

Emails to Lagos and Guerra

An email from December 5, 2022, to which Reportea had access, shows the firm’s early interest in the case. Attorney Isaac Ramírez, who was then working for the firm, sent Eduardo Lagos an analysis on the «Dominga claim before the Environmental Court,» starting with: «Considering what has been discussed and requested, I inform you as follows.»

This same email was forwarded by Lagos to former prosecutor Manuel Guerra —who has investigated ex-president Piñera twice regarding his connections to Dominga—with the message: «Dear Manuel: I hope you are well; please let’s talk about this in the afternoon when we meet with Patricio Vergara. Thank you very much. Hugs.»

When asked by Reportea, Manuel Guerra adamantly denied having worked for Dominga and stated that in the meeting referenced in the email, Lagos mentioned the possibility of advising the project, to which he replied that he could not intervene due to his previous investigations on Piñera and the Penta case, which involved partners from Dominga.

«I never participated in the processing of that project… let alone received money from Mr. Lagos for that purpose, as I never worked on that matter,» he asserted.

The other lawyer mentioned, Patricio Vergara, also denied having discussed an advisory role for Dominga with Lagos, asserting that the meeting was for another legal matter.

The investigation reveals a complex web of financial transactions, personal connections, and temporal coincidences between substantial payments and pivotal judicial rulings. As justice progresses in the case of the «Belarusian plot,» these new findings raise urgent questions about the integrity of the Chilean judicial system and the opacity surrounding major economic projects and their legal battles.

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