Peru Prosecutors Reach Cooperation Deal With Brazil's Odebrecht

Peruvian prosecutors reached a cooperation agreement with Brazil's construction giant Odebrecht on Sunday that will unleash information on bribes that could send four Peruvian ex-presidents to prison.

Lima, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Dec, 2018 ) :Peruvian prosecutors reached a cooperation agreement with Brazil's construction giant Odebrecht on Sunday that will unleash information on bribes that could send four Peruvian ex-presidents to prison.

The agreement "is the most important part of a broad and profound process of collaboration with authorities in Peru," read an Odebrecht statement released in Lima.

Odebrecht began cooperating with Peruvian prosecutors two years ago, but this agreement guarantees that Peru will not use information from crimes confessed by company officials to prosecute them or the company.

Odebrecht will "recognize its responsibility, apologize to society and show its willingness" for reparations, the statement added, mentioning no amounts of money.

The IDL Reporteros website however said that Odebrecht will pay $182 million in reparations to the Peruvian government, a figure based on four bids that the company won by allegedly bribing senior government officials.

Peru's last four presidents -- Alejandro Toledo, Alan Garcia, Ollanta Humala and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski -- have been linked to illicit Odebrecht payments.

All four are under investigation, while Toledo, currently living in the United States, has been formally charged with taking a $20 million Odebrecht bribe.

The construction conglomerate was at the center of the sprawling car Wash corruption probe that stained the biggest Names among Brazil's political and business elite.

The Brazilian probe also revealed that for years Odebrecht doled out hefty bribes across Latin America.

In 2016 Odebrecht acknowledged in a US case that it doled out $29 million in bribes in Peru between 2005 and 2014.