Credicorp president says he delivered $ 3.65 million to Keiko Fujimori

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
• Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)

(CNN Spanish) - Dionisio Romero Paoletti, president of Credicorp, the largest financial corporation in Peru and operating in six countries, including the United States, said he gave more than $ 3 million to former Congressman Keiko Fujimori for the presidential campaign of 2011, according to a letter that he sent to his workers after testifying before the prosecutors investigating the Lava Jato case.

The news is known a few days after the decision that the Constitutional Court of Peru will take on an appeal brought by Sachi Fujimori, sister of the former presidential candidate, who seeks the freedom of the political leader.

Romero Paoletti states in the letter that the contributions to Fujimori's party amounted to $ 3.65 million.

CNN spoke with Rafael Vela, the Prosecutor of the Lava Jato Special Team, who said Dionisio Romero explained that a portion of the money was given to Keiko Fujimori in cash.

Vela believes that the money coming from Credicorp would be lawful and would not constitute money laundering, but reveals “the way in which Keiko Fujimori's party operated” and consolidates the thesis of the fiscal investigation, which argues that Fuerza Popular received “exorbitant amounts of cash, bypassing banking and preventing them from entering party accounting. ”

Prosecutor Vela adds that the party used the "smurf" - that is, false statements before the electoral authorities of several contributors - to hide large amounts of money.

According to the website of the National Office of Electoral Processes, the Popular Force party did not report the money given by Credicorp.

Credicorp sources told CNN that the money delivered to Fujimori belonged to holding funds from profits distributed by their companies, and that the money was accounted for, audited and recorded as a non-tax deductible expense.

Referring to the recent history of Latin America, Romero, whose family owns 14% of Credicorp shares, said in the letter that the money to Keiko Fujimori was delivered in a context in which “the Venezuelan regime, headed then by Hugo Chávez, he deployed millionaire efforts to expand the disastrous Chavismo throughout Latin America. Peru had become a crucial objective for Chavez and candidate Ollanta Humala picked up this ideology in his government program. ” In 2011, Keiko Fujimori faced Ollanta Humala in an election contest that won the latter.

Romero also points out in the letter that, during 2016, they supported two nominations with a total of $ 650,000. According to this version, the money was again for Fuerza Popular and also for Peruvians For the Kambio, a party that nominated Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who eventually became president of Peru.

Upon knowing Romero's revelations, Keiko Fujimori, in pretrial detention for a year in the framework of the investigation of the Lava Jato case, said through his networks: “The reservation of private campaign contributions was a commitment that I assumed and that I have respected until the last consequences ”. And he adds: "I never received money from Odebrecht and there was never money laundering."

The Public Ministry accuses the leader of the Popular Force of money laundering. The Prosecutor's Office maintains that Fujimori received a million dollars from the Odebrecht company for his presidential campaign.

Fujimori's lawyer has indicated that the statement of the president of the board of directors of Credicorp "detracts from any illegal act" by her defendant.

With the law in force in the years in which contributions were made to Fuerza Popular, campaign contributions did not constitute a crime. However, "entering them through falsehood processes" was punishable, according to lawyer Carlos Caro. Caro clarifies that, as of August 2019, the law prohibits companies from giving money to political parties. The sentences are up to 8 years in prison.

A few meters from the jail where Fujimori is being held is her husband Mark Vito, who began an indefinite hunger strike on Wednesday. Vito told CNN that his wife is a political prisoner and that all he demands is that due process be respected.

Case of Odebrecht Keiko FujimoriLava Jato