Prosecutor’s Office requests 35 years in prison for former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski for the Odebrecht case

The Peruvian prosecutor’s office requested on Friday 35 years in prison against former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski for being part of an alleged criminal organization that would have laundered more than 12 million dollars from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht through financial advice.

Prosecutor José Domingo Pérez accuses Kuczynski of forming a criminal organization that would have carried out undercover consultancies for infrastructure works which sought to transfer water from rivers to agricultural fields, as well as build roads and install highway tolls. The crime for which the former president is being investigated is aggravated money laundering.

From the perspective of the prosecution, financial advice is a way of entering money “from a collusive agreement.” A part of the consultancies were carried out when Kuczynski was Prime Minister and Minister of Economy during the government of then President Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006). Another part was done later.

At the beginning of the week, prosecutor Pérez questioned former president Toledo —who, after being extradited in April from the United States while being investigated for another Odebrecht-related corruption case, will remain in prison for 18 months — to know his version as a witness in the investigation against Kuczynski.

The bribery scandal admitted by the construction company Odebrecht caused an earthquake among the Peruvian political class that has governed Peru for the last two decades. Kuczynski, in addition to Toledo, is one of a total of four former presidents investigated and prosecuted for cases linked to the Brazilian construction company.

Former President Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) is facing a trial in which the prosecution has requested 20 years in prison along with his wife Nadine Heredia for whom they have requested 26 years in prison. Both are accused of money laundering. The prosecution affirms that they received three million dollars from Odebrecht for the 2006 and 2011 presidential campaigns. Both deny having committed any crime. Humala and his wife were imprisoned for nine months between 2017 and 2018.

The most tragic case was that of former President Alan García (2006-2011) who committed suicide shooting himself in the head in 2019 in his bedroom, minutes before the police preliminarily detained him for 10 days while being investigated for a bribe from the Brazilian company.

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