The government of Chile has seized $1 million from a U.S. bank account held in the name of former dictator General Augusto Pinochet.
Officials from the Chilean Interior Ministry said Friday that the freezing and transferring of the money from an undisclosed bank in Miami, Florida was done at the request of Chile's State Defense Council.
The secret accounts were disclosed last year by a U.S. Senate committee investigating banks that were still sheltering funds from the former dictator, who headed the military government from 1973 to 1990 after coming to power in a coup.
Prosecutors in Chile are pursuing General Pinochet and his family on charges of tax evasion. A judge in Chile estimates that the 89-year-old general has $27 million stashed in banks around the world.
Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.
