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Lima (AFP) – The Peruvian prosecutor’s office requested this Friday, May 12, 35 years in prison for former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, for alleged money laundering and forming a criminal organization that would have received 12 million dollars in undercover advice from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
The accusation against Kuczynski, 84 years old and who responds on probation, was presented by prosecutor José Domingo Pérez, from the Lava Jato special team of Peru, which has been investigating him for more than five years.
“He is completely calm, he trusts that the situation will be resolved and that no person can accuse him of any act of corruption,” his lawyer Julio Mindolo told RPP radio after learning of the request against the former ruler (2016-2018 ).
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Kuczynski, through his financial advisory companies, colluded with Odebrecht to support his construction projects in exchange for alleged bribes.
In case of being convicted, Kuczynzki could serve a part of the sentence in his home for exceeding 70 years, according to Peruvian law.
The accusation also includes the Chilean businessman Gerardo Sepúlveda Quezada, for whom the Prosecutor’s Office also requested 35 years in prison.
Kuczynski, a former Wall Street banker, has been on parole since April 2022 after spending three years under house arrest.
His lawyer ruled out that former President Alejandro Toledo had incriminated his client after testifying in this case on Monday and Tuesday. Toledo is serving 18 months in pretrial detention after being extradited in April from the United States for another case linked to Odebrecht.
Before being president of Peru, Kuczynski was minister of Toledo, between 2001 and 2006. On March 21, 2018, he became the first sitting president in America to resign due to the Odebrecht scandal.
Kuczynski left office after the Brazilian construction company revealed that it had hired two consultancies linked to him — Westfield Capital and Firts Capital — to advise it on financial operations in Peru, a fact that it failed to divulge when it came to power.
Other leaders have been involved: Ollanta Humala (2011-2016), Alan García (2006-2011) and Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006). Another defendant in the plot is the opposition leader Keiko Fujimori.
Humala is the only one on trial, which began last February. Toledo is in prison and García committed suicide when he was going to be arrested in April 2019. He was 69 years old.
AFP
