Peru’s Former President Pedro Castillo Sentenced to 20 Years for Corruption and Money Laundering

Alejandro Toledo, the former president of Peru, was found guilty of money laundering and corruption and given a 20-year-six-month prison sentence.

Toledo, who was president from 2001 to 2006, was charged by prosecutors with taking $35 million in bribes from Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction corporation, in return for giving them a contract to build a highway in southern Peru.

Toledo, 78, had been living and working in California for many years until he was arrested there five years ago.In 2023, he was extradited to Peru to stand trial.

Odebrecht, who is now known as Novonor, previously acknowledged bribing authorities in the U.S. and Latin America with millions of dollars in order to obtain lucrative government contracts.

Judge Inés Rojas emphasised throughout the sentencing that Toledo had betrayed the Peruvian people’s confidence in him, which was that he would appropriately oversee the country’s finances.

Rather, he defrauded the state, she claimed.

The former president smirked and laughed during the court hearings as he disputed the claims throughout the trial.There are more past Peruvian leaders connected to the Odebrecht scandal besides Toledo.

When police arrived to arrest former president Alan García in 2019 on identical bribery charges, he committed suicide. Ollanta Humala and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, two additional former presidents, are also being investigated in relation to the scandal.