Prosecutors target Peru’s president in Odebrecht bribery probe

A investigation into corruption in Peru involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht is widening after prosecutors requested a probe into whether the company made illicit payments to an investment fund linked to President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Odebrecht’s admission that it paid millions of dollars in bribes in Latin America over the last 15 years to win large public works projects has reverberated across the region, including Peru, where the company is involved in some of the country’s largest infrastructure projects.

Three former Peruvian presidents are also the subject of investigations, including Alejandro Toledo and Ollanta Humala. Former President Alan Garcia and two of his former officials are under scrutiny, according to prosecutors. Odebrecht has admitted it paid a total of $29m in bribes in Peru from 2005 to 2014.

The special prosecutor Katherine Ampuero said she had ordered a preliminary investigation of “alleged suspect operations” involving Odebrecht payments to Latin American Enterprise Fund Managers, a company registered in Florida. According to Florida state records, the company was started in 1998 by Kuczynksi.

Kuczynski has repeatedly denied he accepted any illicit payments from Odebrecht.

Ampuero said she also requested an investigation into Garcia, who was president from 2006 to 2011, when Odebrecht was awarded contracts for work on a subway line in Peru’s capital, Lima. Garcia denied any wrongdoing in a message on Twitter. “I’m willing to face any investigation,” he tweeted.

Last month, a Peruvian judge issued an arrest warrant for Toledo, who faces charges of influence trafficking and laundering assets. The former president is under investigation on suspicion that he received $20m in bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for awarding the company a major highway contract when he was in office, according to prosecutors.

Toledo has denied the charges and refused to return to Peru.

In January, Kuczynski said he wanted Odebrecht to pull out of the country and stripped the company of a $7bn gas pipeline project.

In a recent interview with LatinFinance, Peru’s Finance Minister Alfredo Thorne said the Odebrecht scandal is expected to impact the country’s economic growth this year, forcing Peru to trim its 2017 economic forecasts to 3.8% from 4.8%.