Peru’s ex-president Toledo gets more than 20 years in prison in case linked to corruption scandal
NPR Online NewsOCT 12 2024
The Superior Court in Lima, Peru, sentenced former Pres. Alejandro Toledo, 78, to 20.5 years in prison after he was found guilty of accepting $35M in bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
During his 2001-2006 presidency, Toledo signed a deal with Odebrecht to build a road connecting the southern coast to western Brazil's Amazon region, during which he was found to have taken bribes in exchange for contracts to build two highway sections.
According to Judge Inés Rojas, Toledo’s actions amounted to "defrauding the state" and violating the trust of Peruvians who entrusted him with the responsibility of overseeing public finances as their president.
The case was cut and dried, with Odebrecht admitting to paying hundreds of millions in bribes to public officials, mostincluding notablythe Toledoformer president. This is also the latest in a series of bribery scandals in Peru, which ismakes this a win for prosecutors in their fight against the country's plague of corruption.
There are still several questions surrounding Toledo's guilt, most notably that for a man who allegedly took millions of dollars in bribes, he always lived an incredibly modest life. After building a successful career from nothing, it seems unfair to place him behind bars for the rest of his days, especially as he deals with severe health issues.