CORRUPTION-PERU: Gov't Tries to Track Down Millions from Convicted Officials

• by Ángel Páez (lima)
• Thursday, August 26, 2010
• Inter Press Service

The aim is to recover 323 million dollars -- the total amount that the courts ordered the roughly 90 people in question (including a former prime minister and former ministers) to pay the state in reparations.

That amount would finance for nearly four years the Glass of Milk Programme, the government's main food assistance plan for the poor.

'Many of those convicted for corruption transferred their property to other people's names or front men, to keep their accounts and other assets from being impounded,' sources at the State Legal Defence Council told IPS.

'A special prosecutor has been named and given expanded powers to investigate, track down and locate the assets of those sentenced for serious crimes of corruption,' the sources said.

The list is headed by imprisoned former president Fujimori himself, who owes 2.8 million dollars in damages in connection with sentences for wiretapping, bribes paid to opposition lawmakers, and the use of public funds for his 2000 reelection campaign and a 15 million dollar payment to his former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos (who is also in prison).

Fujimori has not paid off one single cent of the reparations he owes, the sources at the State Legal Defence Council said.

The authorities will try to track down the nearly 670,000 dollars that Fujimori received when he sold a building in 1998, in a business deal that was deemed illegal by the public prosecutor's office.

Of that amount, Fujimori wrote a check for 150,000 dollars to his sister Rosa, who is living in Japan and is wanted in Peru. He later wrote four checks for 83,688 dollars for each one of his children: Keiko, Hiro, Sachi and Kenyi, supposedly to finance their studies in the United States.

But the money transferred to his sons and daughters ended up in bank accounts in several countries, including Japan, according to investigations by the office of the inspector general.

The former president also kept 214,000 dollars in cash from the property sale. The final location of these funds is unknown.

Julio Roca was appointed Tuesday as the special prosecutor in charge of recovering reparations in corruption cases.

That task was originally in the hands of prosecutor Pedro Gamarra, but President Alan García decided to create a new team headed by Roca.

Carlos Rivera, a researcher and lawyer with the non-governmental Legal Defence Institute (IDL) who has followed the corruption cases, criticised Roca's designation.

'The only prosecutor's team that has managed to recover funds and assets is the one led by Pedro Gamarra, but instead of strengthening his office with additional funds and staff, they decided to reassign the task to Roca, an attorney who has no experience in this area,' Rivera told IPS.

'You need someone with a great deal of knowledge to discover where the corrupt officials have squirreled away their wrongfully obtained assets,' he said.

Rivera said he was surprised by the announcement by the government of García, who is less than a year away from the end of his term, in July 2011.

'Since García took office, the prosecutor's team handling the Fujimori-Montesinos case has seen its budget, staff, and investigative powers reduced,' the lawyer said. 'But despite all of these obstacles, it has managed to recover money stolen through corruption. The logical thing to do would be to strengthen the work that's being done, rather that create another office.'

Gamarra said those convicted of corruption do not generally cough up the reparations they are ordered to pay the state.

'They use different methods to hide their assets, which makes it a difficult task,' he told IPS. 'But with the new powers granted by the state, it will be possible to carry out better, more effective searches. We have already recovered much of that money.'

Montesinos owes 60.7 million dollars, in connection with sentences involving trafficking of weapons to Colombia's FARC guerrillas, wiretapping, the use of National Intelligence Service (SIN) funds to finance Fujimori's reelection campaign, payment of bribes, and other corruption charges.

'From experience, we know that Montesinos hid money in banks abroad, in his name and the names of front men, so a more rigorous search to track down these illicit funds will be carried out,' said the sources with the State Legal Defence Council.

The former head of the joint chiefs of staff and former army chief (1991-1998), General Nicolás Hermoza, considered the third most powerful figure in the Fujimori regime after the president himself and Montesinos, owes the state 5.5 million dollars.

The authorities found that Hermoza had secret bank accounts in Switzerland containing funds obtained through illegal commissions paid in illegal arms deals, such as sales of Israeli-made weapons to the army.

Former prime minister Víctor Joy Way, who during the Fujimori regime represented Chinese arms manufacturers who sold weapons to Peru, was fined 3.9 million dollars.

Joy Way, who was released in 2008 after seven years in prison and has begun to participate in meetings of the campaign team of presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori -- the former president's daughter -- has not paid off any portion of the reparations, according to the State Legal Defence Council.

Former agricultural minister Absalón Vásquez, who is running as a Fujimorista candidate for governor of the northwestern province of Cajamarca, owes 6.4 million dollars.

Peru's election laws do not bar people who owe the state outstanding fines or damages arising from legal sentences from participating in elections.

One of the most serious cases involved former TV mogul José Enrique Crousillat, who owes the state 53 million dollars.

Crousillat, the former owner of América Televisión, has been on the run since March, when President García revoked the pardon he had granted on health grounds.

'Crousillat has hidden properties in Miami (Florida) and Argentina,' Gamarra said. 'Others convicted of corruption act in a similar manner, using different tricks and loopholes to protect their assets and bank accounts from being seized by the authorities. They don't show up to pay the reparations on their own initiative. You have to pressure them, using the force of law.'

More than 90 former officials and others connected with the Fujimori regime who were convicted of corruption owe damages to the state. But the sources at the State Legal Defence Council did not provide IPS with the entire list 'because it is in the process of being cleaned up.

'What we can say is that most of them are former cabinet ministers, former military chiefs, weapons makers, TV station owners, advertising executives, and former legislators,' they said.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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