Context

Alberto Fujimori ruled Peru for around ten years (from 1990 to 2000), during which he was a president for two years and a dictator for eight years. In 1992, he transitioned from president to a dictator through a coup d’etat (Floríndez & Moreno, n.d.).

Fact: Who gave what to whom and why?

During his regimen, Fujimori awarded twenty-eight government procurement contracts to Odebrecht, which is a company that has been linked to corruption cases involving railroad construction and agriculture projects in various countries of Latin America. All of these government contracts presented “additional costs” of five hundred million soles (peruvian currency), which meant that corruption inflated the cost of public contracts by thirty eight percent (Floríndez & Moreno, n.d.).

Fujimori was accused of embezzling seventy five percent of the National Intelligence Service in order to pay bribes to public officials and the media to increase his popular approval and benefit his public image (Transparency, 2019). Controversially, these funds were also used to execute dissidents.

Furthermore, he was also accused of making obscure deals with public officials, entrepreneurs and drug dealers, all of which were recorded in video tapes (Relea, 2001).

Applicable Law

According to the Peruvian Criminal Code, Fujimori was accused of the following crimes (Transparency, 2018):

1. Perjury (he was condemned to six years of prison and to pay four hundred thousand peruvian soles in civil damages)
2. First degree murder and kidnap (he was condemned to twenty-five years of prison and to pay more than one million in peruvian soles in civil damaged)
3. Embezzlement and ideological falsehood (he was condemned to seven years and six months of prison plus three million peruvian soles)
4. Espionage, embezzlement and active bribery (he was condemned of six years of prison plus twenty-four and three million peruvian soles in civil damages.)

Why is this case relevant?

This case is relevant as it was the first time that an ex-president from Latin America is sentenced in his own country for crimes related to corruption and crimes against humanity.

Lessons learned

We can learn that appointing an impartial anti-corruption prosecutor can serve to effectively punish public officials due to the fact that in this case, Fujimori was investigated by José Hugaz, whom he appointed as anti-corruption prosecutor at the end of his regime.

What type of corruption is it and what are the crimes involved concerning corruption?

This a case of grand corruption as it took place “at the policy formulation end of politics” and it involved transactions which were large in scale (Anticorruption, s.f.).

The crimes concerning corruption are the following: embezzlement and active bribery. First, Fujimori was accused of embezzlement, which occurs when a person holding office in an institution dishonestly and illegally appropriates or used the funds and good that they have been entrusted. In this case, Fujimori used public funds in an illegal and dishonest way for his personal gain and other activities. Among those activities, he made illegal deals with entrepreneurs and organized crime (Anticorruption, s.f.).

Second, the crime of active bribery was committed. This occurs when a person directly or indirectly offer or promises anything of value to someone who works in government with the purpose of influencing his/her acts whether or not those acts are proper. In this case, Fujimori was accused of using 75% of the intelligence funds to pay bribes to public officials (Anticorruption, s.f.).

References (Harvard – Anglia)

Abogados, D., s.f. Glosario de Derecho Anticorrupción. [Online]
Available at: Ebook

Moreno, F. y., s.f. Reporteros. [Online]
Available at: https://bit.ly/2lzybmQ

Convention, U. N., s.f. Grand Corruption occurs when. [Online]
Available at: Grand corruption occurs when. [Ebook]. Oficina de las Naciones Unidas contra la Droga y el Delito. Recuperado de https://bit.ly/2momz6s

Noticias, R., 2018. RPP Noticias. [Online]
Available at: https://bit.ly/2RuJMPd

Relea, F., 2001. El País. [Online]
Available at: https://bit.ly/2kfXytD

International, T., 2019. Transparency International the global coalition against corruption. [Online]