MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peruvian president admits working for Odebrecht, as financial advisor or irrigation project

Odebrecht is at the center of Latin America’s biggest graft scandal and has admitted to paying about US$ 30 million in bribes to secure contracts in Peru

Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski acknowledged that he worked as a financial adviser for an irrigation project owned by the Brazilian builder Odebrecht, contradicting his previous denials of having any links to the company. Odebrecht is at the center of Latin America’s biggest graft scandal and has admitted to paying about US$ 30 million in bribes to secure contracts in Peru over a decade.

 Kuczynski worked in the Cabinet of former President Alejandro Toledo, who prosecutors say took a US$ 20 million bribe from Odebrecht during his 2001-2006 term. However, Kuczynski has not been named as a suspect in the far-reaching graft probe by the attorney general’s office.

In a televised interview with local broadcaster RPP, Kuczynski denied being a partner in an investment fund that allegedly had links to Odebrecht. However, he said he had worked as a financial adviser for several companies that needed to raise funds for big projects, including an Odebrecht firm.

“They use bankers,” said Kuczynski, a 79-year-old former Wall Street banker elected president in 2016. “I’ve been a banker, in New York, for a very prestigious bank. I’ve been one of the founders of what’s called project financing. So sometimes, I was hired. For H2Olmos, an irrigation project.”

Odebrecht owns H2Olmos SA, which was formed in 2009 to build and operate one of its landmark projects in Peru - carving a 20-kilometer tunnel through the Andes to transport water to irrigate agricultural fields in the desert.

Kuczynski’s comments could provide more ammunition for the opposition-controlled Congress as it targets him in its probe into Odebrecht’s links to politicians.

Kuczynski had previously denied reports in local media that Odebrecht hired him as an adviser a decade ago to mend ties with him after he opposed highway contracts awarded to the company in Toledo’s government.

While the attorney general’s office reopened a preliminary probe related to Odebrecht and Kuczynski a year ago, it has not accused Kuczynski of wrongdoing.