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According to the
prosecutor's office,
Toledo is a fugitive from
Peruvian justice for
allegedly receiving $20
million from the Brazilian
construction company
Odebrecht in exchange for
aid to win public works
contracts.
/ A.M. Costa Rica
wire services photo.
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Peru's
ex-president arrested in U.S,
says Peruvian prosecutor
By A.M. Costa Rica staff and
wire services
U.S. marshals detained former
Peruvian president Alejandro
Toledo, 73, Tuesday in San
Francisco, California. The
arrest was based on an
extradition request from Perú,
according to the South American
country's public prosecutor's
office. Toledo was that
country's president from 2001 to
2006.
According to the prosecutor's
office, Toledo is a fugitive
from Peruvian justice for
allegedly receiving $20 million
from the Brazilian construction
company Odebrecht in exchange
for aid to win public works
contracts. Perú formally
requested his extradition from
the United States a year ago.
"This will be the ex-president's
first appearance before U.S.
judicial authorities, as part of
the process aiming to return him
to the country," the
prosecutor's office said in its
statement. Toledo is a visiting
professor at Stanford University
in California.
Perú has suffered a wave of
political scandals linked to
corruption and the Odebrecht
case. Former president Pedro
Pablo Kuczynski was arrested at
his home over allegations of
bribery linked to the
investigation.
Another former president, Alan
Garcia, shot himself in the head
to avoid arrest in April, also
in connection with alleged
bribes from the Brazilian
construction firm.
Toledo's lawyer Heriberto
Benitez told local radio station
RPP that the former president
had not received due process in
the investigation by Peruvian
prosecutors.
The case of Toledo is also
linked to Costa Rica, as A.M.
Costa Rica reported May 1, 2018.
A Costa Rican private bank was
fined for receiving funds from
the former Peruvian president.
The General Superintendent of
Financial Institutions imposed a
fine for $2 million on a private
Costa Rican bank for not
complying with
anti-money-laundering controls,
which allowed the entry of $6.5
million linked to Toledo.
The superintendent proceeded to
issue the final act of the
sanctioning administrative
proceedings against the bank
based on Article 81 of Law No.
7786.
The decision was made in
mid-April 2018, and was appealed
by the bank before the National
Council of Supervision of the
Financial System.
Eight months before, on August
2017, the superintendent had
confirmed that the bank had been
investigated for several months
for having received money that
the Peruvian justice system had
tried to freeze as part of funds
suspected to have been bribes
paid to Toledo.
A company in Costa Rica was
created for the sole purpose of
laundering assets coming from
Perú and turning the money over
to the hands of Toledo or his
wife surnamed Karp, according to
the allegations.
At the time, Toledo said that
the government of Germany had
compensated the Jewish survivors
of the Holocaust and that his
mother-in-law had received the
money for that reason. Some time
later he said it was a loan. The
credit line did exist but was
paid in full 89 days after it
was granted, according to the
Financial Intelligence Unit of
Perú.
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Have you heard on a former
president linked to millionaires
bribes?
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