The largest British weapon manufacturer-BAE Systems- secretly paid Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet more than two million dollars for sales of weapons to Chile, and also to boost projects such as the development of the Rayo missile program. Payments began in 1997 according to the British daily The Guardian. Such a large flow of money was funnelled through fiscal secure ways or through the Miami branch of British bank Coutts, which has the honour of safeguarding the money of Queen Elizabeth II. All evidence indicates that such operations continued to take place up to the year 2004.