LIMA, Peru (AP) – A Peruvian judge on Thursday ordered the arrest of former President Alejandro Toledo on suspicion of taking bribes from a Brazilian construction company at the heart of a region-wide corruption scandal.
Judge Richard Concepcion accepted prosecutors’ request that Toledo be jailed as they investigate allegations he received $20 million in bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for permission to build a highway connecting Brazil with the Peruvian coast.
Toledo, who was president from 2001-2006, has denied any wrongdoing in the past. He is believed to be abroad. He recently attended a meeting in Paris and is a visiting scholar at Stanford University in California.
The judge said a red alert had been sent to the international police agency Interpol for his arrest “wherever he is.”
Odebrecht has admitted to paying almost $800 million in bribes to governments across Latin America as part of a December plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department. In Peru, they acknowledged paying $29 million for projects built during the government of Toledo and two successors.
The alleged payments were believed to have been made through Toledo’s friend, Peruvian-Israeli businessman Josef Maiman, who prosecutors say they are also investigating along with the Odebrecht’s former boss in the country, whose testimony triggered the probe.
The moves came after police searched Toledo’s home in Lima on Saturday.
The former president has said would return to Peru as long as he could be assured of a fair trial.
“Say when, how and where and in what bank they’ve given me $20 million,” an angry Toledo said in an interview with a local radio station over the weekend.
Authorities in Peru and throughout Latin America have been moving fast to charge officials accused of taking bribes from Odebrecht. Toledo is the first former president to face an arrest warrant.