Alejandro Toledo, former president of Peru, is accused of having received some 34 million dollars from Odebrecht through various companies created in tax havens, with which he acquired real estate in his country. The 77-year-old former president was arrested in 2019 in California and spent 8 months in prison for risk of flight
Last September, the US Justice gave the green light for his extradition to Peru, having found sufficient evidence to justify this measure, which was endorsed last February by the State Department.
A court in Lima began on April 12 a trial for money laundering against former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006), who connected virtually from the United States, where he is awaiting extradition, against his wife Eliane Karp, and four other people.
The Ninth Criminal Settlement Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Lima proceeded with the installation of the oral trial for the Ecoteva case, the criminal investigation opened against Toledo for allegedly having bought real estate and paid mortgages in Peru with money from companies incorporated in Panama and Costa Rica.
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The funds to open the Ecoteva companies, in the name of his mother-in-law, Eva Fernenbug, Ecotaste and Ashdan, allegedly came from the payment of bribes received by Toledo for the concession and construction of the Interoceánica Sur highway project, in charge of the Brazilian company Odebrecht, according to to the prosecution’s accusation.
Present at the hearing, virtually, were Toledo and Karp from California, where the couple is waiting for the extradition request approved by the United States, but which has been suspended for 14 days, since last Friday, so that the defense of the former president files a new appeal for reconsideration.
Also included in the judicial process are Toledo’s mother-in-law, Eva Fernenbug, the former head of presidential security, Avraham Dan On, and his son, Shai Dan On, as co-perpetrators of the crime of money laundering.
Toledo is a primary accomplice
While the lawyer David Eskenazi, Fernenbug’s former legal representative, is prosecuted as a primary accomplice.
Fernenbug’s current lawyer, Roberto Su, said he had not been notified of the prosecution and presented a medical certificate to justify his absence at the hearing, in addition to requesting that the proceeding be suspended for these reasons.
Prosecutor Liliana Briceño requested that a forensic doctor analyze the medical certificates presented by Fernenbug’s defense and warned him that if he did not appear, he would be declared a “contumacious prisoner” (the one who knows about the process, but refuses to attend it).
For his part, the co-defendant Shai Dan On, resident in Israel, requested that the arrest warrant be withdrawn for appearing as a contumacious prisoner because he is participating in the oral trial, which was accepted by the room.
Given the requests for suspension of the hearing, Judge Josefa Izaga, who intervened as director of debates, asked the lawyers and the parties not to present “delaying maneuvers” that seek to “delay” the trial.
However, the room finally agreed to suspend the hearing until April 20, the date on which the prosecution will present its accusation against the defendants.
Toledo is charged in Peru for having received some 34 million dollars from Odebrecht through various companies created in tax havens, with which he acquired real estate in Peru.
The 77-year-old former president was arrested in 2019 in California and spent 8 months in prison for risk of flight, although he was placed under house arrest in March 2020, with the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic.
Last September, the US Justice gave the green light for his extradition to Peru, having found sufficient evidence to justify this measure, which was endorsed last February by the State Department.
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