The investigative unit of La República revealed that, Jorge Yoshiyama Sasakiwhen summoned by the prosecution on July 25, 2016 to testify on the “Cocktails Case”, initially denied any involvement, following the instructions of his uncle Jaime Yoshiyama Tanaka and Keiko Fujimori. Nevertheless, His loyalty to the Fujimori leadership collapsed when a warrant was issued for his arrest.
This way, Yoshiyama felt that he had been betrayed and used to cover up for Fujimori, since the protection promised in exchange for his silence did not materialize. He thus decided to cooperate with the authorities, revealing his role in the illicit financing scheme.
There were seven statements in which he explained how he collected cash clandestinely, participated in cover-up operations to avoid the investigation against Fujimoriin addition to recruiting false contributors.
“In the second year of 2015, I found out the whole truth during a family visit to my uncle Jaime Yoshiyama’s house. Both Jaime Yoshiyama and Keiko Fujimori knew that there was indeed money donated by the Odebrecht company to Fuerza 2011 for the electoral campaign,” says Jorge Yoshiyama, adding that “Jaime Yoshiyama informed him that he had spoken with Keiko and that she told him, ‘Jaime, just in case, we should state that we have not received any contribution from Odebrecht.’”
Jorge Yoshiyama Sasaki confessed that he collected money
The witness in the Cocktails case confessed to the Prosecutor’s Office that he collected cash from businessman Juan Rassmuss Echecopar at the offices of his company Sudamericana de Fibras in Callao.
This information was corroborated by Enrique Gubbins Bovet, Rassmuss’ nephew, who provided records of the people who withdrew the funds, including Keiko Fujimori and her ex-husband Mark Vito Villanella.
Yoshiyama collected a total of US$1,465,000 on 11 occasions, and delivered the envelopes containing the money to Fujimori’s personal secretary, Adriana Tarazona Martínez, at the former candidate’s office in Lima.
He also reported that Keiko Fujimori asked him to call on his friends in the construction business to make clandestine contributions to her campaign. Yoshiyama explained the government plan to these businessmen, collected the money and delivered it in person to Fujimori.
Keiko Fujimori denies contributions
Keiko Fujimori has denied receiving funds from the construction company Odebrecht or accepting illicit money for her campaigns. However, Jorge Yoshiyama Sasaki has told prosecutors that between February and March 2011, his uncle Jaime Yoshiyama gave him US$800,000 in cash, taken from a safe in his bedroom.
Jaime Yoshiyama explained that the businessmen who supported Keiko Fujimori did not want to be identified as donors, so he asked Jorge to find friends to deposit that money into the party’s accounts as false contributors. Jorge Yoshiyama later discovered that part of those funds came from Odebrecht.
