(Bloomberg) — A Peruvian judge has sentenced former President Alejandro Toledo to 20 1/2 years in prison for having received an eight-figure bribe tied to the construction of a highway project.
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The sentence is a key milestone for Peru, its first presidential conviction after launching a corruption crackdown last decade in the wake of a sprawling graft scandal involving Brazilian builder Odebrecht SA.
Prosecutors said Toledo had negotiated a $35 million bribe with Odebrecht of which at least $20 million was actually paid. Toledo has insisted that he’s innocent.
Toledo governed Peru between 2001 and 2006, shortly after former authoritarian President Alberto Fujimori resigned and fled to Japan. Toledo was a vocal Fujimori opponent but both ended up being jailed in the same facility last year, when Toledo was extradited from the US to face trial for graft charges.
Toledo is the second Peruvian president to be criminally sentenced this century, after Fujimori. But he’s the first former leader to be convicted over his ties to Odebrecht, while two other former presidents continue to fight graft allegations related to the company.
Peru has developed a reputation in recent years for its propensity to jail former presidents. The nation has built a special jail for ex-leaders that at one point held three former heads of state simultaneously.
In 2019, former President Alan Garcia killed himself to avoid being arrested over his ties to Odebrecht. Former President Ollanta Humala has spent some time in jail also over allegations of ties to Odebrecht, while ex leader Pedro Pablo Kuczynski spent several years in house arrest.
Garcia’s case was closed due to his death, while Humala’s and Kuczynski’s cases remain pending.
Former President Pedro Castillo is currently in jail on pre-trial detention for having tried to illegally dissolve Congress in 2022.
Kyczynski and Castillo all deny any wrongdoing as did Garcia.
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