Peru: Alejandro Toledo Sentenced to 20 Years in Odebrecht Case | The prosecutor’s office accused the former president of accepting $35 million in bribes

From Lima

Two decades ago He became the President of the country to much fanfare As a standard bearer for the restoration of democracy and the fight against corruption, But now he has been sentenced to 20 years and six months in prison to corruption. This is a disappointing story Alejandro ToledoHe became known as “El Solo Toledo” who appeared on the political scene between 2001 and 2006 during the dictatorship and the end of the dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori, the leader of the democratic opposition, which allowed him to win elections after the fall of the regime. Disappointment with his government multiplied when serious corruption allegations against him surfaced.

Toledo was sentenced this Monday for receiving A $35 million bribe from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht He should be given a highway connecting Brazil with the coast of Peru. He was sentenced to 9 years concurrent and 11 years 6 months for money laundering. Three officials from his government were sentenced to between 9 and 14 years, and one was acquitted.

The second president was guilty

“Don’t let me die in prison,” said the 78-year-old Toledo.Addressing jurors in his closing arguments days before his sentencing. He is the first Peruvian president to be convicted in the Odebrecht corruption scandal that has rocked Peruvian politics – and three other former presidents have been implicated in the scandal: Ollanta Humala and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski were prosecuted, and Alan Garcia committed suicide in 2019 while he was about to be arrested.– and the second head of state to be convicted by the judiciary in the country’s history: the first was the late dictator Fujimori, for crimes against humanity and corruption.

Remanded in custody from April 2023 until this Monday, Toledo read the sentence at length — more than six hours — in what was set up as a prison courtroom as a now-convicted man. On hearing the sentence against him, he sat next to his lawyer and covered his face with both hands. He shook his head and gave a nervous smile. After the sentence was read, prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez — the same man who tried Keiko Fujimori for money laundering and related to Otbrecht — told the court that Toledo, sitting a few meters away from him, gestured with his mouth and insulted him: “”Your mother told me,” the lawyer said.

Toledo will serve his sentence at a special prison for former presidents, where he was already detainedLocated in a police station on the outskirts of Lima. The only other inmate in the prison is Pedro Castillo, who has no convictions but is being held on charges of corruption and trying to shut down Congress. The two former presidents did not communicate with each other. Fujimori was previously illegally pardoned by the Tina Polwarte government from 2007 to December 2023.

The Otbrecht case

The trial that landed Toledo in prison began in November 2016. Evidence points to him as a key figure in bribery in Peru. Odebrecht’s Brazilian executive, Jorge BaradaThe man, who headed a construction company in Peru between 2001 and 2016, struck a deal with the prosecutor’s office not to be charged in exchange for information. He began to speak and one of the first heads to roll up was that of the now-convicted former president. The prosecutor’s office opened an investigation shortly afterToledo traveled to the United States in January 2017 to evade Peruvian justice. A long handover process began, which culminated in his handover in April 2023.

Bharata told the lawyers Ottbrecht bribed Toledo to win the tender to build the Interoceanic Highway connecting Brazil to the southern coast of Peru.. He initially talked about paying $20 million, then raised that amount to more than $30 million. In November 2004, he assured the prosecutor’s office that he met with the Peruvian president in a suite at the Marriott Hotel in Rio de Janeiro to agree to pay bribes to the company’s executives when he traveled from Toledo to Brazil to attend the Rio Group’s presidential meeting. . In 2005, Odebrecht won the tender to build this highway.

According to Bharata’s testimony, the bribe was paid in installments and the money was depositedIn the direction of Toledo, In the offshore company accounts of Peruvian-Israeli businessman Joseph MaimonA close friend of the former president. Maimon reached a plea deal with the prosecutor’s office and supported Bharata’s version. Toledo has said that Barada and Maiman are lying, that he did not accept bribes and that he had nothing to do with the millions he received from his then close friend Odebrecht. But his arguments are weak and contradictory.

The prosecutor’s office proved that more than ten million dollars from Maimon’s accounts passed through several countries and accounts and ended up in a foreign company opened in Costa Rica in the name of Toledo’s mother-in-law. This offshore company, Ecoteva, bought an apartment in Lima for 3.7 million dollars, an office for about 900 thousand dollars, and paid more than half a million dollars for mortgages on two houses in Toledo. Money Trail Condemns Former President

For “Solo Toledo” who was the face of the fight against corruption and synonymous with scandals and corruption from the defense of democracy, the political end came a long time ago: he won the 2016 presidential election. Just 1.3 percent. Now his firm decision is jailed for corruption.