Andina

Keiko Fujimori case: Accused confesses to fake contributions

14:41 | Lima, Nov. 13.

Prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez on Tuesday confirmed Jorge Yoshiyama Sasaki has confessed his uncle —former Minister Jaime Yoshiyama Tanaka— had given him large sums of money in order to make fake contributions to Fuerza 2011 (now Fuerza Popular) for Keiko Fujimori's former presidential campaign.

As is known, Yoshiyama Tanaka had also been Congress Chairman during ex-President Alberto Fujimori's regime (1990-2000)

This information was provided by the prosecutor at the hearing —presided over by Judge Richard Concepcion Carhuancho— to assess the preventive detention request for the other people accused of alleged money laundering offenses. 

According to Perez, Yoshiyama Sasaki —accompanied by his lawyer— had appeared at the Prosecutor's office in order to confess.

Yoshiyama Sasaki indicated that —between February and March 2011— his uncle Yoshiyama Tanaka had asked him if any of his friends were economically solvent so as to be presented as fake donors to Fuerza 2011's presidential campaign. 

After telling his uncle the name of a friend, Yoshiyama Tanaka gave him US$100,000 in cash, along with the Scotiabank account numbers to make the deposits. 

Furthermore, the nephew had visited Yoshiyama Tanaka six or seven times from March to mid-July 2011. On every occasion, he had been handed over between US$100,000 and US$200,000 in cash. 

Yoshiyama Sasaki even confessed he had coordinated with the fake donors to deny these facts in case of being questioned by the police, or to rule out having accepted to lend their names. 

Additionally —during the hearing— Yoshiyama Tanaka's lawyer, Humberto Abanto, informed his client has affirmed he had received money from businesspeople and then laundered it through fake campaign donations. 

Judge Concepcion Carhuancho has already ordered a 36-month preventive detention for Fuerza Popular party leader Keiko Fujimori and her advisor in the shadows Vicente Silva Checa, who is considered a close acquaintance of Vladimiro Montesinos.

Montesinos was the long-standing head of Peru's intelligence service (SIN) under former President Alberto Fujimori. 

In 2000, secret videos —which he had recorded— were televised that showed him bribing an elected congressman to leave the opposition and join the Fujimorist side of Congress.

After having fled to Japan and traveled to Chile —from where he was extradited to Peru— the Fujimori patriarch was sentenced for crimes against human rights and corruption committed during his term in office.

In 2017, he was pardoned by ex-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who later stepped down amid a political scandal. 


(END) CCR/DTK/MVB

Published: 11/13/2018