The Siucho Neira and the Miu Lei are not the only ones implicated in corruption scandals. So are the Siucho Dextre and the Miu Siucho. They are all part of the same family that founded Emilio Siucho Lam, or Siu Yat Cho, the Chinese who came to Peru from Zhongshan, Canton, in 1920.
One of the 11 children of Emilio Siucho Lam, Julián Siucho Ápac, born in Pachacámac on August 25, 1947, was the one who continued with his father’s business dedicated to transportation. On November 7, 1990, Julián Siucho and his wife, Blanca Dextre Gómez, founded the company San Martín Contratistas Generales, which began in the same transportation field, but led to the construction of major infrastructure projects. It was in that sector that Julián Siucho Ápac and his children Julián, Raúl, Iván and Érika Siucho Dextre were involved in the mega corruption case known as the Construction Club.
In 2017, as part of his statements as an effective collaborator in the Lava Jato case, the former representative of the Brazilian firm Odebrecht Jorge Barata revealed that his company was part of an exclusive group of construction companies that paid bribes to officials of the Provías Nacional entity, of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, and in exchange they were awarded million-dollar public works through manipulated tenders. Among the companies that benefited from the corrupt distribution, between 2011 and 2014, Barata mentioned San Martín Contratistas Generales, owned by the Siucho Dextre.
The conspirators paid bribes of 3% of the total value of the work, money that did not come from the pockets of the businessmen but from the overvaluation of the infrastructure project, according to the statements of the effective collaborators in the case who confirmed what Barata said.
According to the State Suppliers database, San Martín Contratistas Generales obtained two projects from Provías Nacional for S/797.6 million. The tax investigation reaches the four Siucho Dextre brothers.
FAMILY LINKS
They are not the only ones entangled with the Construction Club case. Barata also identified the company Constructores y Mineros Contratistas Generales, whose manager, Javier Lei Siucho, is accused by the Prosecutor’s Office of having paid bribes to obtain public works. In the period that the club was active, the firm managed by Lei won three contracts for S/322.8 million.
The Prosecutor’s Office charges him with four very serious crimes: illicit association to commit a crime, aggravated collusion, generic active bribery and money laundering. He is credited with having disbursed, in coordination with other businessmen, US$17,000,000 in bribes to public officials of Provías Nacional and their intermediaries. On November 8, 2019, Javier Miu Lei confessed to paying bribes. However, according to his nephew Iván Siucho Neira, Javier Miu Lei organized a meeting with the television presenter Andrés Hurtado Grados, Chibolín, with the purpose of influencing in his favor.
Born in Lima on October 4, 1969, Javier Siucho Lei is the son of Juana Siucho Ápac, one of the daughters of the Chinese Emilio Siucho Lam. And he is the uncle of the brothers Augusto, Diego, Jean Carlo and Sebastián Miu Lei, who are in conflict with the brothers Iván, Martín, Roberto, Jaime and Ana Siucho Neira, married to the soccer player Edison ‘Orejas’ Flores. Their father, Francisco Siucho Ápac, is also the son of the Chinese Emilio Siucho Lam, as La República revealed in the first part of this investigation.
The link with the Construction Club does not end here.
Many soccer fans were uncomfortable that the selected ‘Orejas’ Flores supported the presidential candidacy of Keiko Fujimori. In reality, the athlete added to the support that the family of his wife, Ana Siucho Neira, has always given to the daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori. The Siuchos have been clandestine contributors to Keiko Fujimori.
The person who betrayed them was Jorge Yoshiyama Sasaki, nephew of Jaime Yoshiyama Tanaka, who managed Keiko Fujimori’s campaigns in 2011, directly, and through Joaquín Ramírez Gamarra, in 2016.
COMMON INTERESTS
“For the 2016 campaign, in 2015 Keiko Fujimori Higuchi asked me if I could bring together businessmen in the construction industry so that they could make a donation again (as in 2011). I contacted Federico Aramayo Málaga and asked him if he could bring together some builders in his field, to which he replied that he would see. After two weeks, he told me that he has been able to contact four people who are interested in meeting Keiko Fujimori Higuchi and contributing to his campaign,” said Jorge Yoshiyama. Federico Aramayo Málaga was part of the ‘Construction Club’, so he invited his accomplices, including Julián Siucho Dextre, from San Martín General Contractors.
The money that Jorge Yoshiyama collected was provided in person to Keiko Fujimori herself.
“The group was there from 2013 to the end of 2015. The members of this support group gave me 1,000 soles a month in cash, which I gave to Keiko Fujimori when I saw her. For 2015, she asked that the amount donated be raised to $1,000. The members of this group were Fernando Espá, Federico Aramayo Málaga, Julián Siucho, Carlos Urrea, Bernardo Álvarez Calderón, José Sam, José Antonio Osterling, Miguel Castro Grández,” indicated Jorge Yoshiyama.
By the way, at the time of the secret meetings with the members of the ‘Construction Club’, this criminal organization was in full activity. They were only discovered in 2017.
With the investigation of the Cocktails case, the Prosecutor’s Office met the Siuchos again. They were so committed to Keiko Fujimori’s project that they participated in an alleged money laundering scheme, as buyers of real estate sold as an intermediary by Mark Vito Villanella. There were five properties for US$5,104,185 that Villanella sold to Julián, Raúl, Iván and Érika Siucho Dextre, in some cases in the name of San Martín Contratistas Generales and Inmobiliaria San Antonio del Sur, which are his property. Villanella earned 3% for each operation.
It has aroused the attention of the Prosecutor’s Office that the sellers of the owners were Fujimori businessmen, which is why they estimate that it would be a mechanism to conceal money of suspicious origin.
The reason?
Villanella also acted as a money-raiser for his ex-wife’s campaigns.
BOX
Javier Lei Siucho admitted paying bribes
● In 2021 he was a fugitive, according to the National Court of Appeals: “The judge points out that it is unobjectionable that the defendant Lei Siucho has demonstrated questionable behavior by avoiding the action of justice, since he has the status of not having been since the Court of Appeals revoked his appearance with restrictions due to the imposition of preventive detention,” the court noted.
● In 2022, Lei asked the prosecutor in the El Club de la Construction case, Germán Juárez Atoche, to avail himself of the figure of early termination. That is, he acknowledged the payment of bribes on behalf of Constructores y Mineros Contratistas Generales, when he was the manager.
DATA
● Background. The Siucho Dextre were used to simulate fake events to raise funds for Keiko Fujimori’s campaigns.
● Play. The Prosecutor’s Office has established that the premises where the cocktail on December 21, 2015 was made, and where S/710,419 were supposedly collected, belongs to the Siucho Dextre. Julián Siucho Dextre is a Fujimori militant.
