Crime & Justice

Judge opens money laundering case against Keiko Fujimori in Peru

Lima, Dec. 1 (EFE).- Peruvian Judge Víctor Zúñiga on Friday issued the indictment that marks the beginning of the criminal trial for money laundering against opposition leader and former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, as a result of alleged illegal contributions to her electoral campaigns.

The order is part of the “Cocktails” case, which involves 38 people, including the leaders of Fujimori’s Popular Force party, Vicente Silva, Pier Figari, Ana Hertz, Jaime Yoshiyama, José Chlimper, and Keiko Fujimori’s ex-husband, Mark Vito Villanella.

Judge Zúñiga, head of the Fourth Preliminary Investigation Court of the National Court, had already ordered in May that the former candidate and six of her closest party collaborators be prevented from leaving the country for 36 months.

Fujimori is accused of money laundering for allegedly hiding illegal contributions to the 2011 and 2016 electoral campaigns, and has already been placed in preventive detention twice in the case known as “Cocktails.”

On Friday, the judge ordered a series of rules of conduct for Fujimori and others, such as the prohibition of changing tax addresses without prior judicial authorization and not communicating with the other defendants, witnesses or experts.

The “Cocktails” case is related to a complaint being investigated by the Peruvian Public Ministry’s Lava Jato Special Team that implicates the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in illegal contributions to Fujimori’s presidential campaigns.

Keiko, daughter and political heir of former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) is being investigated as part of an alleged criminal organization formed within her party to capture and hide the allegedly irregular funds to finance her 2011 and 2016 electoral campaigns.

The case is known as “Cocktails” because during the 2016 election campaign – in which Fujimori campaigned for the presidency against Pedro Pablo Kuczynski – her party organized six fundraisers through luxurious dinners that could be accessed by paying between $250 and $500 per guest.

According to Popular Force, they raised more than $1,250,000. The Public Prosecutor’s Office, however, claims that they have only been able to justify 30%, or about $390,000.

The Lava Jato Special Team, which investigated the corruption conspiracy around the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht that also affected several Latin American countries, believes that the famous cocktails were actually a façade to receive irregular contributions from various companies.

Among the amounts investigated are one million dollars from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht and about 3.65 million dollars from Credicorp, the largest financial group in Peru.

Fujimori faces a request for 30 years in prison, according to the hypothesis of the prosecutor José Domingo Pérez, who points out that she is the leader of a criminal organization that operates within her political party.

After more than two years of investigation, the Public Prosecutor’s Office presented the request for imprisonment and an indictment for the alleged crimes of organized crime, money laundering, obstruction of justice and false declaration in administrative proceedings.

The committal order includes not only Popular Force, but also MVV Bienes Raíces SAC, a real state company that allegedly existed only for money laundering purposes, and whose CEO was Mark Vito Villanella, Fujimori’s ex-husband.

Judge Zúñiga’s decision comes as second blow on Friday for the Fujimoris, after ajudge from the city of Ica inadmited the release of former President Alberto Fujimori, father of the former candidate, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity.EFE

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