SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A U.S. appeals court panel on Wednesday denied an appeal by former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo Manrique to counter his accusations that he received millions of dollars in bribes as part of a mammoth corruption scandal involving four Peruvians. – presidents are involved.
Toledo, 77, is accused of taking $20 million in bonuses from Odebrecht, the giant Brazilian construction company that has admitted to US authorities that it bribed officials to win contracts in Latin America for decades. He had asked for Mansur’s extradition pending a legal challenge to the US State Department’s decision to send it to Peru.
Toledo, who was president of Peru in 2001-2006, was arrested in July 2019 at his home in Menlo Park, California. He was initially held in solitary confinement at Santa Rita Prison, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) east of San Francisco, but was released in 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was arrested at home at that time.
The judge in the extradition case of Thomas Hixson revoked Toletano’s bail on Wednesday and ordered him to return to the jail by the US Marshal in San Francisco at 11:00 p.m., at the request of US Attorney Ismail Ramsey. Ramsey said the U.S. Marshals are moving him to turn him over to Peruvian authorities. But when that would happen is uncertain.
The Odebrecht corruption scandal has rocked Peru’s political scene, with almost all of the former president’s former president now on trial or under investigation.
He is the former president of Ollanta Humala standing trial on the charges that he and his wife received over $3 million from Odebrecht for the presidential campaigns in 2006 and 2011. Both denied any wrongdoing.
Former Prime Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who left office in 2018, is in charge of housing similar salaries.
Former president Alan García, in office from 2006-2011, fatally shot himself in the head in 2019 as police arrived at his home to arrest him.
In an effort to stay the extradition order, Toledo argued that Peru did not submit an indicting document or probable cause. But the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in its ruling that Peruvian prosecutors have filed documents that are sufficient to support Toleti’s extradition.
The three-member panel said statements made by two witnesses in the corruption case who testified against Toledo were enough “to establish probable cause at the extradition hearing.”
“And Toledo said that $21 million in cash was transferred into accounts under the former chief security officer’s control, $17.5 million was spent on the company’s mother-in-law, and $500,000 in bank cash was placed on the books in his name.” or used to buy the land titled to him,” the court wrote.
Toledo also denied that he should be released because he wanted to wait up to three years in a Peruvian prison to be formally announced, which would put his life in danger because of his age and health.
The appeals panel of the court recognized that Toledo risks serious health effects if he were to be placed in a Peruvian prison, where the conditions are dire. The judges, however, said they were basing their decision on the fact that Toletus was unlikely to succeed in challenging the extradition.
“The panel stated that the public interest served by the United States for the extradition application is valid and compliant, as due compliance promotes relations between the two countries and enhances efforts to establish international law and order,” the court said.
He was a legal permanent resident of Toledo, California, where he returned with ties to the 1970s, when he was a student at Stanford University. The student at Stanford was scheduled to visit late in 2017, though the school said the status was free. I needed a book.
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