( Spanish) – The final stretch began in the trial against Alejandro Toledo. This Friday, for the first time, the former president of Peru declared in the proceedings against him in the case known as Odebrecht or Interoceánica. The intervention of the former president is part of the last steps before knowing whether the Judiciary will declare him guilty or innocent.
In this case, Toledo, who governed between 2001 and 2006, was extradited in April 2023 from the United States and is currently in preventive detention awaiting his sentence. The hearing took place in the Barbadillo prison, where he is being held.
In the past, Toledo has pleaded not guilty. In an interview with in May 2017, the former president denied any act of corruption during his government.
What is Alejandro Toledo accused of?
Toledo is accused of the crimes of collusion and money laundering. The fiscal theory maintains that the former president would have received more than US$30 million from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for favoring it during his Government in the tender for the Interoceanic highway, which links Peru and Brazil. The Prosecutor’s Office requests 20 years and six months in prison for Toledo.
The trial began in October of last year. During that initial hearing, prosecutor José Domingo Pérez said: “What are we going to prove? With the advance evidence of the testimony of (Josef) Maiman Rapaport, now deceased, we are going to prove how Alejandro Toledo asked Maiman to use his bank accounts to receive bribe money from the Brazilians at Odebrecht.”
The Prosecutor’s Office indicates that Odebrecht gave Maiman more than US$30 million for Toledo. Maiman, a former friend of Toledo who died in 2021, testified as an effective collaborator in the investigation against the former president. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the objective of this payment was to favor the Brazilian company in the work of the Interoceanic highway. During his lifetime, Maiman accepted before the Public Ministry that he had received money from the company.
Alejandro Toledo’s version
Toledo has always denied Odebrecht’s alleged bribery. Although Jorge Barata, the company’s former representative in Peru, has not appeared to testify during Toledo’s trial, he did do so in Brazil in 2017. According to the Public Ministry, on that occasion he told the Prosecutor’s Office that he had given him money Maiman, allegedly destined for the former president. Regarding Barata, Toledo said this Friday during his trial: “The only times we have met with Mr. Barata and the Peruvian builders has been to sign the final agreement in public, in the Golden Room, in the Government Palace.”
At the end of the hearing, Roberto Su, Toledo’s lawyer, told the press that the Odebrecht money was delivered to Maiman and that it never reached his client.
Another trial against Alejandro Toledo is known as Ecoteva and began in April 2023, when Toledo was still in the United States. The former president also pleads innocent in this case.
The Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the purchase of two properties in Lima in the name of Toledo’s mother-in-law and the payment of mortgages on two assets, owned by the former president. The thesis of the Public Ministry is that these operations were carried out with the money of Ecoteva Consulting Group, a company of which the former president’s mother-in-law was president. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, that money would be the same that the Odebrecht company allegedly delivered to the former president through Maiman.
tries to find out what happened to Ecoteva. The company was opened in a tax haven.
In 2016, through a conciliation agreement with the US Department of Justice, Odebrecht acknowledged having paid bribes in several Latin American countries, including Peru. According to that statement, the company paid Peruvian officials about US$29 million between 2005 and 2014 to secure public works contracts.
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