Topline
Peru’s former president Alejandro Toledo surrendered in the United States Friday for extradition to Peru in a case claiming he accepted bribes from Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction conglomerate that’s been the center of one of the largest corruption scandals in history.
Alejandro Toledo, who served as Peru’s president from 2001 to 2006, has surrendered to extradition.
Key Facts
The 77-year-old surrendered for extradition in San Jose, California, on Friday morning, and will travel back to Peru, according to reports, ending a four-year legal battle against his extradition.
Toledo allegedly accepted at least $20 million from Odebrecht, which confessed in 2016 to bribing elected officials to win construction contracts across Latin America, and the company had to pay a record-breaking $2.6 billion fine.
Toledo was first arrested for alleged connection to the Odebrecht scandal in 2019 while he was living near Stanford University, his alma mater, as a visiting scholar.
He sought a stay on his extradition, but a court of appeals denied his latest motion this week and a federal judge ordered him to surrender.
Key Background
Following a 2016 investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and 10 Latin American countries, Odebrecht executives admitted to a major corruption scheme in which it paid major kickbacks to politicians in 12 countries over the past 20 years. The company was caught as part of Brazil’s corruption probe of its state-run oil company Petrobras—Odebrecht and dozens of other companies acknowledged paying bribes to politicians and officials in exchange for contracts with Petrobras. The group’s chief executive, Marcelo Odebrecht, was arrested in 2015 and sentenced to 19 years in prison.
Surprising Fact
Toledo, who served as Peru’s president from 2001 to 2006, is the fourth Peruvian ex-president to be ensnared in the Odebrecht scandal. Ollanta Humala, who served as president from 2011 to 2016, is on trial for charges that he and his wife received more than $3 million from the company for his presidential campaigns. Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who left office in 2018, is under house arrest for similar charges, and Alan Garcia, who served after Toledo, fatally shot himself in the head in 2019 when police arrived at his home to arrest him for involvement with Odebrecht. Peru jails more presidents than any other country in the world, according to Bloomberg, and Toledo would join two other former leaders in a jail in the nation’s capital built specifically for former presidents. Every elected Peruvian president since 1985 is either in jail, has been in jail or faced arrest.
Further Reading
Brazil’s Odebrecht corruption scandal explained (BBC)
Peru Is Running Out of Space to Keep its Jailed Ex-Presidents (Bloomberg)
Brazil Billionaire Ready To ‘Sing Like A Canary’ About Petrobras Scandal (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/04/21/perus-ex-president-surrendered-to-us-officials-for-extradition-in-mega-corruption-scandal—heres-what-to-know/