Chile is asking Malta to extradite investor Alberto Chang-Rajii to face trial for alleged fraud, money laundering and violations of General Banking Law.

Malta has reportedly already revoked his residence permit. However this extradition request will bring back memories of a 1999 case when Chile refused to extradite a naval officer who Malta police suspected of the attempted murder of Paceville bouncer Joseph Spiteri. Lieutenant Hernan Sepulveda Mery had eluded the police by going back on his ship in Grand Harbour. The Miami police had also refused to hand him over when he was held there later.

Mr Chang-Rajii is the president and founder of Grupo Arcano, an international private equity and venture capital firm developing new companies in the areas of energy, natural resources and innovation technology.

He used to portray himself as an investment guru, claiming he got an MBA and masters in behavioural science from Stanford and that he was a seed investor in Google when the company was founded in the 1990s.

But after newspapers raised the possibility that these assertions may not be true, Mr Chang-Rajii backtracked and said he attended Stanford but “didn’t take the final exam”.

Onix Capital promised investors sky-high returns with some clients even guaranteed annual returns of up to 36 per cent. 

Three executives of his group resigned recently, telling investors that they had “serious doubts” about the “amount and accuracy” of Mr Chang-Rajii assets.

"We have worked in Grupo Arcano for several years and have always performed real operations," David Senerman, Grupo Arcano's chief investment officer, Nicole Soumastre, chief executive of its investment unit, and Paulo Brignardello, Arcano's chief business officer, wrote in an email to the clients.
 
In the meantime, the Chilean public prosecutor raided Grupo Arcano’s offices as part of an investigation into the case.