Costa Rica agreed to Peru’s request to freeze $6.5 million tied to relatives of the former president of that South American nation, Alejandro Toledo, who is being investigated for alleged corruption offenses.
The money remains deposited in a private bank in the name of the company Ecostate Consulting SA linked to the Peruvian businessman Josef Maiman, identified by Jorge Barata, former manager of the Brazilian company Odebrecht in Peru as the recipient of the bribes that Toledo received when he was president.
The president of that society is Sabih Saylan, recognized in Peru as Maiman’s right hand. Precisely, this last man is identified as a close friend of former president Toledo.
On February 13th, a new formal request was filed by the judicial authorities of Peru to extend the measure of keeping the $6.5 million that are in a private bank in Costa Rica for a further 12 months… That same day, the Prosecutor’s Office processed the petition before the criminal court of the First Judicial Circuit of San José and, on February 15th, the court granted the petition,”
said the press office of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
This case is part of the investigation called ‘Ecoteva’, where a network of companies created in Costa Rica is under the magnifying glass for the movement of suspicious capital to bank accounts linked to Toledo and his mother-in-law Eva Fernenbug.
In an interview given to the EFE agency on May 28th, Toledo announced that he will sue Barata for $200 million, as he denies the statements made by the former Odebrecht employee.
In Peru, Toledo is investigated for apparently receiving $20 million from the construction company Odebrecht to favor it with a road work before the end of his government.
Despite an arrest warrant for the former president to serve 18 months in preventive custody, Toledo remains in the United States where he has lived with his wife for some years.
In June 2015, the Public Ministry requested the dismissal of an open criminal file against some of the persons mentioned above, because they were already being charged in Peru. In addition, they haven’t been able to link these alleged crimes to any Costa Rican national.