Spanish
Lima.- The National Superior Court of Justice of Peru ordered this Monday that former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018) go to trial for alleged money laundering for allegedly having received bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht disguised as consultancies while he was a minister under former President Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006).
The Seventh National Preparatory Investigation Court ruled that the case should proceed to the trial stage and that Kuczynski be formally charged with alleged money laundering after ruling on the end of the investigation that the Prosecutor's Office has been conducting since December 2017.
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Kuczynski, 86, still cannot leave the country after spending three years under house arrest in his home in Lima, away from his wife, the American Nancy Lange. The case began when it became known that Kuczynski may have received bribes under the guise of consultancies carried out for Odebrecht by the company Westfield Capital, which he shared with his partner, the Chilean Gerardo Sepúlveda, at a time when PPK was a minister under Toledo, who has been convicted of receiving bribes from Odebrecht. The Prosecutor's Office requests a 35-year prison sentence for Kuczynski and Sepúlveda, as well as civil reparations amounting to almost $46.7 million. If convicted, Kuczynski would avoid prison due to his advanced age. The court added that this process also involves the companies Westfield Capital Limited, First Capital Inversiones y Asesorías Limitada, Dorado Asset Management Limitada and Latin American Enterprise Managers, "who will face trial along with the former president of the Republic." The resolution of Judge Chávez Tamariz, of more than 2,400 pages, was disseminated by the Superior Court of Justice and details that 2,577 pieces of evidence have been admitted in the investigation. The magistrate ordered that everything done be sent to a criminal court of the National Court so that it sets the date and time for the start of the trial against Kuczynski as part of this criminal process. Anti-corruption prosecutor José Domingo Pérez argues that the former president, in his time as minister and prime minister (2002-2006), formed an alleged criminal organization that received more than 12 million dollars from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, through shell companies on infrastructure and irrigation projects. He is also under investigation for the alleged commission of the crimes of illicit association, false declaration and procedural fraud, after five citizens denied, at the end of 2018, having delivered economic contributions to his 2016 campaign as stated in the declarations of the political organization.
