Is a bank in Hong Kong holding nine tons of gold ingots in the name of Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile?

A major Chilean newspaper says the bullion worth $160 million is in vaults under the control of HSBC, the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp. The bank denies it.

But Chile’s foreign minister Alejandro Foxley said this week that his office had received new documents related to another case of Pinochet’s stashed overseas riches, one involving the Riggs Bank of Washington D.C. That case broke in 2004.

A lawyer in the Riggs case, Jorge Insunza, says he believes Pinochet amassed the gold from commissions from arms sales during his 1973-1990 regime. Chile, you may remember, had a thriving business selling cluster bombs during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

Pinochet’s lawyer used an interesting and colorful allusion in dismissing the charges. He said it reminded him of the history of Atahualpa, ruler of the Incan Empire. In 1532, Francisco Pizarro, an illiterate pig farmer, arrived in Peru with 200 men and a few dozen horses. He asked for a meeting with Atahualpa, got it, then took him hostage. He demanded a room full of gold for his release. Pizarro got the ransom, then killed Atahualpa anyway. It precipitated the downfall of the Incan Empire.

Pinochet is 90, and his lawyers argue that his senility should prevent him from standing trial for any crimes.

They also argue that the new charges are a “smokescreen” to cover up a scandal over irregularities enveloping Chiledeportes, a governmental sports agency.

There may be an element of truth in that. But you can bet investigators will be swarming over these alleged new documents, and that Pinochet’s trail may lead to this side of the globe.