Peruvian court sentences former president Toledo to a second corruption conviction

(Patria) - A Peruvian court has sentenced former president Alejandro Toledo to thirteen years and four months in prison for money laundering, the second conviction against him related to corruption, Reuters reported.

Toledo (79), who was president from 2001 to 2006, was found guilty of using bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, now known as Novonor, to purchase high-value properties.

According to prosecutors, Toledo and his wife used $5.1 million to buy a house and an office in a luxury district of Lima and to pay off mortgages on two other properties. The funds were channeled through an offshore company in Costa Rica that Toledo created to launder illegal money, the prosecution stated.

This conviction follows a sentence of twenty years and six months handed down in October 2024, when Toledo was found guilty of receiving up to $35 million in bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for awarding the company lucrative public works contracts.

The sentences will be served concurrently.

Toledo, an economist with degrees from Stanford University and the University of San Francisco, is serving his sentence in a prison at a police base in Lima. The facility also houses former presidents Ollanta Humala, Pedro Castillo, and Martin Vizcarra.

Odebrecht corruption cases, part of the wider "Car Wash" scandal, have implicated governments across Latin America and almost all of Peru's presidents this century. Another former leader, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (86), is currently on trial for his alleged role in the scheme, with prosecutors seeking a 35-year prison sentence.