Former president of Peru sentenced to 20 years in jail for corruption and money laundering crimes

A court in Peru has sentenced former President Alejandro Toledo to 20 years and six months in prison after finding him guilty of corruption and money laundering.

Prosecutors accused Toledo, who served as president from 2001 to 2006, of accepting $35 million in bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for awarding them a contract to build a highway in southern Peru.

Toledo, 78, was arrested in California five years ago, where he had been living and working for many years. He was extradited to Peru in 2023 to face charges. Odebrecht, now renamed Novonor, previously admitted to paying millions in bribes to officials across Latin America and the U.S. to secure lucrative government contracts.

During the sentencing, Judge Inés Rojas highlighted that Toledo had violated the trust placed in him by the Peruvian people, who expected him to manage the nation’s finances responsibly. Instead, she said, he defrauded the state. The former president denied the charges throughout the trial and was seen smirking and laughing during the court proceedings.

Toledo is not the only former Peruvian leader implicated in the Odebrecht scandal. In 2019, former president Alan García took his own life when police arrived to arrest him over similar bribery charges. Two other former presidents, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and Ollanta Humala, are also under investigation in connection with the case.