- 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) - The union that brings together the largest and most important companies in Peru, the Confederation of Private Business Institutions, better known by its acronym Confiep, was raided by the prosecutors of the Lava Jato Special Team this Friday.
The requisition occurred in Lima, while in Ica, almost 300 kilometers away, the most important annual business event in the country, the Annual Executives Conference (CADE), was held. A significant number of the companies that attend this forum are part of the Confiep.
The search and search of the offices of the union was authorized by the Judiciary at the request of the Prosecutor's Office within the framework of the investigations that this institution carries out against Keiko Fujimori. The Public Prosecutor's Office accuses the Popular Force leader of the crime of money laundering, since he claims that he received money from the Odebrecht company for his campaign. Fujimori has always denied the charges and refuses to have received money from Odebrecht.
The entrance of the Prosecutor's Office to Confiep occurs days after important businessmen from that country attended to give their testimony in the framework of the investigations against Keiko Fujimori. Dionisio Romero, the president of the board of the largest financial holding company in Peru, Credicorp, acknowledged in a letter to his workers and before the Prosecutor's Office to have delivered US $ 3,650,000 in cash for the campaign of the leader of the Popular Force. Keiko Fujimori, from jail and through his social networks has also confirmed that he received the money from Credicorp.
The head of the Lava Jato special team told CNN that while the money from Credicorp would be lawful and would not constitute money laundering, as in the case of Odebrecht, it does reveal “the way in which Keiko Fujimori's party operated” and it consolidates the thesis of the fiscal investigation that maintains that Popular Force "received exorbitant amounts of cash, avoiding the banking and avoiding that they entered the accounting of the party".
With the law in force in the years that 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.
Also, before the authorities of the Public Ministry, a group of businessmen said they had contributed money to the Confiep for a media campaign in favor of the private company, but denied doing so to the Keiko Fujimori campaign. In 2011, the Popular Force leader faced Ollanta Humala.
On the money of the businessmen given to the guild, Confiep said in a statement that "according to the institutional principles that inspire us, we emphatically point out that we do not promote or finance political parties or political-partisan actions."
On Thursday, in his speech to hundreds of businessmen at CADE, President Martín Vizcarra referred to the issue and said: “We have witnessed a series of events that have clearly shown the type of link that has existed for decades between politics And the companies. Let's not cover the sun with a finger and understand once and for all, that it has not acted in the most correct way. We cannot commercialize politics if we intend to develop a true market economy for all ”.
For her part, the president of Confiep, María Isabel León, in her speech at the CADE said: “I apologize because all the presentation I brought had to be thrown away. I do not feel capable or strong enough to talk about codes of ethics and anti-corruption with everything we are seeing. That would be embarrassing, ”he also said“ I have 3 million 650 thousand reasons to ask those businessmen who have done things irregularly to step aside, for their country, for their employees, for ethics. Take the example, let's do things right, ”he said, referring to the contributions of Credicorp.
Raid Keiko Fujimori