SQM announced that Julio Ponce resigned from the board of directors of four related companies of SQM amid an ongoing tax fraud investigation. Ponce resigned for personal reasons from the boards of Potasios de Chile, Norte Grande, Pampa Calichera and Oro Blanco. Ponce, who was replaced as SQM chairman by Juan Antonio Guzmán in April after the company admitted it had made USD 11 million in irregular campaign payments, controls SQM through the four firms known as the cascadas.