Riggs Bank to create Pinochet victim fund.

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Riggs Bank to create Pinochet victim fund.

A Spanish judge on Friday dropped fraud and money laundering charges filed against Riggs Bank in the United States in connection with millions of dollars deposited there by former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

National Court Judge Baltasar Garzon also estimated at $2 billion the amount Pinochet would be liable for in damages if he were ever to be convicted of the charges he faces in Spain for genocide, state terrorism and torture.

In his ruling released Friday, Garzon dismissed the case he was pursuing against Riggs, the Washington-based bank in which Pinochet hid $10 million in secret accounts. The bank last month reached a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department under which Riggs was fined $16 million after admitting to having failed to inform authorities about Pinochet's suspicious transactions.

Garzon dropped his charges against Riggs after the bank promised Spanish plaintiffs and prosecutors information about Pinochet's accounts and offered to pay millions of dollars to the Salvador Allende Foundation for distribution among victims of the Chilean dictatorship.

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