Keiko Fujimori battles evidence of her father’s corruption
June 4, 2009
The two Fujimoris with an interest in politics
Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the corrupt ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori who was recently sentenced for human rights abuses during the country’s fight against Maoist terrorists, is having a hard time battling the slow release of facts relating to her father’s regime.
Alberto Fujimori defeated the terrorists by arming indigenous Andean communities so that they could defend themselves, and by building secretive intelligence organisations to carry out assassinations against ultra-leftists. He completely revitalised Peru’s failed economy after its destruction by ex-President Alan Garcia and it was this economic recovery that meant he was able to use his secretive mafia to, just as past Presidents had done, slowly siphon off huge sums of public money into his family’s private foreign accounts.
Keiko Fujimori, now a congresswoman with a fancy and very expensive education who plans to run for President and pardon her father if she wins, has been under attack by opposing political groups to explain how her education in the US was paid for, as well as the education of her siblings.
Unable to do so coherently, or keep her story straight, she has resigned to not trying to explain anything, and is now dedicating her efforts to denouncing the “politically motivated witchhunt” against her. No doubt that is is politically motivated, and a witchhunt, all with the aim of ruining her chances of winning the next elections, but the facts still speak for themselves.
Inter Press Agency (IPS) goes into some detail here.
Keiko Sofía Fujimori, who is planning to run for president of Peru in 2011, is having difficulty proving that her father, who governed this country from 1990 to 2000, did not make illicit use of public funds to pay for her studies and those of her brothers and sister at universities in the United States.
The daughter of Alberto Fujimori, who acted as First Lady after her parents separated and is now a congresswoman, has given a number of different explanations for the origins of the money, which she says amounted to 556,000 dollars.
At a recent press conference in Congress, she said her father had a personal fortune of over one million dollars, plenty to cover the expenses of his children, Keiko Sofía, Hiro Alberto, Sachi Marcela and Kenji Gerardo, at the universities of Boston, Columbia and Kansas.
Keiko Fujimori, who has promised to pardon her father, currently serving a 25-year sentence for human rights violations, if she becomes president, said that her family had funds from three sources, totalling just over 1.2 million dollars.
She said her family had 400,000 dollars when her father took office in 1990. Rosa Fujimori, her aunt, lent her father 150,000 dollars, and 669,500 dollars were the proceeds from the 1999 sale of a property he owned in the municipality of Surco, in Lima province.
However, in 2001, when the former president was investigated for illicit enrichment, the parliamentary commissions in charge of the investigation concluded that his bank accounts did not show savings of 400,000 dollars, nor could his income explain the accumulation of such a sum.
They also found that the loan of 150,000 dollars to Fujimori by his sister Rosa was immediately handed over to his transport and housing minister, Antonio Páucar Carbajal, and was therefore not paid to any U.S. university.
And an expert audit ordered in 2003 by Supreme Court Justice José Luis Lecaros, who opened the investigation for illicit enrichment, confirmed that the 669,500 dollars Fujimori obtained from the property sale were not used to pay tuition at the universities of Boston, Columbia or Kansas.
The experts’ report indicated Fujimori kept 214,750 dollars in cash from the sale proceeds, and 167,376 dollars were deposited by Keiko Fujimori into her private account in Citibank in New York. She withdrew the money in 2001, after she and her brothers and sister had completed their studies.
The experts found that the money supposedly intended to pay for the studies of Fujimori’s two sons Hiro and Kenji, a further 167,376 dollars, turned up instead in an account at a Bank of Brazil branch in Panama belonging to their uncle by marriage, Rosa Fujimori’s husband and the former Peruvian ambassador to Japan, Víctor Aritomi Shinto.
The experts’ report for the Supreme Court concluded that it was “duly proven” that the beneficiaries did not use the money to finance their studies abroad.
“This is a campaign to discredit me that has been going on ever since I have been in first place in the opinion polls as a presidential candidate,” Keiko Fujimori said. “Everything has been properly proven: my father had more than a million dollars to cover tuition and upkeep for my brothers and sister and me, which cost 556,000 dollars.”
The prosecution of Alberto Fujimori for illicit enrichment, in which improper financing of his children’s higher education was one of 29 charges against him, was cut short because the former president fled to Japan, taking advantage of his dual nationality, after he was removed as president by Congress in 2000 on the grounds of being “morally unfit” to govern.
Comments (8)
$556,000 education??? That’s got to be one heck of an academic talent.
Frankly, Peru has more important issues to worry about today and for the future. I think it will go down in history as a great irony that the current crop of leaders are prosecuting the Fujimoris. Not meaning to say Alberto Fujimori didn’t deserve to be held accountable, but what about everyone else, how long do you want to spend looking back when there’s so much that needs to get done going forward?
An expensive education for each sibling, not just Keiko! That´s a lot of cash.
Yep, I agree with you Ward. I said at the time when Fujimori was in Chile awaiting extradition, that I wish he had just stayed in Japan and left Peru alone. Unfortunately he had other more pressing personal interests that never played out.
$556,000 / 4 children is $139,000 per sibling. Considering most business schools cost about $50,000 a year (maybe more for private institutions) along with room and board, transportation, and food, it sounds about right. I doubt Alberto Fujimori was really guilty, seeing as how corruption in Peru is everywhere they could’ve just wanted to get rid of Fujimori by framing him and now they’re after his daughter. Typical of Peruvian politicians who do nothing but point fingers rather than solve major crisis like Alberto Fujimori did. I’d love to see what Keiko does if she wins presidency.
Everybody talks about how much money he took! YOU should talk about TERRORISM… In my childhood, I lived in hell! My friend’s dad was killed by the terrorism, my best friend was killed because of a bomb, and a lot of people from my town lost their beloved ones because of terrorism… including myself!! I have seen dead people in the streets covered in blood, and kids crying because they lost their parents! I had to live in the darkness… and it was not only me, it was thousands of children living in the same situation as I. I also lived with fear of being kidnaped and be killed!!! Or worse… Yes, there was worse than death…!!! My dad was almost killed simply because he was a veteran. Do you think that is fair? Thanks to Fujimori, my family is alive today as I see it, as well as millions of families too! And if somebody like Fujimori wants to take money in order to stop this hell, I dont mind… No money in the world is going to give me back my dear friend or my relatives…Now you tell me, what would you do if you have to live a september 11,2001 every single day? Peruvians lived it for over 15 years, every single day! If Fujimori goes for the 4th round I would happily to vote for him!
Sara, I have no problem with recognising people’s achievements, for example you forgot your Dear Leader’s rescue of the economy as one of these. Along with the achievements one must also recognise the crimes. If a doctor murdered your mother for fun, then cured your father’s cancer, is he a hero, or do you praise him for his good, then send him to jail for his bad?
I am saddened that you think the lives of your family are worth several times more than those that died at the hands of Fujimori’s anti-terror terror death squads, but the truth is, I understand that harsh times call for harsh measures, and am willing to accept what happened as a sad part of history that 1) should not be repeated and 2) debating what happened is a waste of time. We must merely remember all the dead, and make sure such things aren’t repeated.
In your ignorance, you seem to have skipped over the articles I have written about terrorism and proceeded to claim that I am the one that is ignorant.
In conclusion, hail your Dear Leader Dictator of Peru for his excellent management of the Shining Path and the economy, now may he pay for his corruption, his destruction of democracy and free press, and his death squads.
I would have been happy for all to have been forgotten, and for him to have stayed in Japan, but remember, he is only in jail now because his ego brought him back. He practically volunteered to be jailed.
This article is one of the most worthless and biased commentaries, and yes it’s a commentary based on opinion. Alberto Fujimori to me is a respectable and perhaps the most respected politician to ever live in my opinion.
I actually wished I was Peruvian to have a respected elected democratic leader like Fujimori. I strogly believe that Keiko will win and will have the honor of serving the Peruvian people. She has integrity and the will power to lead. Keiko, if you’re reading this,?????????????????????
OK since the web developer failed to support japanese. Keiko, Gambatte, sekai ga anata ni tatte imasu!
I can only refer you to my previous comment, but as a brainwashed Fuji-Fascist the logic will be lost on you, as your Dear Leader the Supreme Deity of Peru who can do no wrong has clearly rotted your mind.
As for Keiko, I wish her as much pain and suffering as I would any other Peruvian or foreign politician. It’s a sad fact that they are all in the game to enrich themselves and serve their own interests. All the good honest people with leadership qualities who want to help others and improve their countries or the world are off running charities and the like.
I hope this reply doesn’t merit sending a secret death squad led by a quasi intelligence-service-come-drug-lord type. Oh wait, Fujimori’s friends are all in jail.