SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — After more than two years of legal battles, a federal judge on Tuesday approved extraditing a former Peruvian president to his home country to face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of charges of bribery and money laundering.
Alejandro Toledo Manrique, who led Peru’s government from 2001 to 2006, is accused of helping a Brazilian construction company, Odebrecht, win a lucrative contract for a major highway project in exchange for $35 million in bribes.
In a 30-page ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson found inconsistencies in two key witnesses’ stories about Toledo don’t outweigh evidence that bribe money flowed to accounts controlled by Toledo’s formerly close friend and mother-in-law.
“That so much bribe money ended up in the hands of Toledo’s mother-in-law is part of the evidence of probable cause that Odebrecht did bribe him,” Hixson wrote.
Josef Maiman, an Israeli businessman and formerly close friend of Toledo, testified that the former president directed him to launder $35 million in bribe money on Toledo’s behalf. Another witness, former Odebrecht executive Jorge Barata, said he personally delivered cash to Toledo and that when his company fell behind on payments, Toledo pressured him to keep the money flowing.




