Odebrecht case: USA to return seized funds to Peru

The United States will return about US$686,000 to Peru. They were seized from former President Alejandro Toledo for receiving bribes from Brazilian construction group Odebrecht, the U.S. Justice Department announced on Wednesday, August 31.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn allege that Odebrecht paid US$25 million in bribes to Toledo, Peru’s president from 2001 to 2006, for road construction contracts.

Prosecutors say Toledo used about US$1.2 million in 2007 to buy a home in Maryland, which he sold eight years later. In 2020, a judge ruled that prosecutors could seize the money Toledo had kept in a “Bank of America” account.

“Civil forfeiture plays a critical role in depriving criminals of their ill-gotten gains, regardless of their status,” Breon Peace, Brooklyn’s top federal prosecutor, said in a statement.

Odebrecht has admitted to bribing governments across Latin America to consolidate his vast construction empire. Toledo has denied soliciting or accepting bribes and has not been prosecuted in the United States.

Toledo now lives in California, resisting Peru’s attempts to extradite him to face bribery charges related to Odebrecht. He was represented by a public defender in the extradition proceedings and said he has no income or savings. The U.S. State Department will decide whether to extradite him.

With information from Latina Press

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