President of Peru received 300 thousand dollars between 2016 and 2022

The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, received more than one million soles ($300,000) in her accounts between 2016 and 2022, a time when she was a candidate for the vice presidency of the Republic and then a minister in the Government of Pedro Castillo (2021- 2022), according to data from the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) published this Sunday in a journalistic report.

The FIU of the Superintendency of Banking and Insurance (SBS) has detected “suspicious movements” in its bank accounts between August 2016 and August 2022, a period in which it received “numerous cash deposits and transfers whose origin is unknown,” it indicated. the report from the newspaper El Comercio.

The journalistic investigation began with another media report that Boluarte owned several luxury watches that he wore at official ceremonies, among which there was a Rolex valued at $14,000, which is why the Attorney General’s Office opened a preliminary investigation. for alleged illicit enrichment.

Until 2023, the Peruvian president has declared income in assets of 462,968 soles ($126,000) and other income (which is not specified) for 593,347 soles ($161,000), in addition to her monthly salary as president of 16,000 soles ($4,300).

However, the FIU report details that money of more than one million soles entered 11 bank accounts, four of them jointly.

“In total, the cash payments received in the accounts are for 1,097,200 soles and 2,200 dollars. Both figures add up to 1.1 million soles,” El Comercio stated.

According to the financial intelligence report, the transfers for 274,848 soles ($74,800) would not have “an economic justification to support them.”

In conclusion, the FIU points out that The economic information declared by Boluarte between 2016 and 2022 “would not support the detailed operations” and that the joint account holders do not file affidavits of income.

For this reason, the FIU maintains that the operations registered by the president “could be linked to the crime of money laundering,” according to the report.

Since December 2022, the head of state has also been investigated for money laundering in the case of contributions to the Peru Libre (PL) party, founded by the fugitive Vladimir Cerrón, in which she was a member until 2022.

Boluarte’s economic movements date back to the years when she was an official at the National Registry of Civil Identity (Reniec) in 2016.

In the seven individual accounts he received 180,143 soles and 2,200 dollars until 2021the year in which he ran for vice president for Peru Libre, El Comercio stated.

Until the 2021 elections, Boluarte was the zonal head of Reniec, with a gross monthly salary of 4,500 soles ($1,200), according to the entity’s transparency portal, but the largest amount of cash deposits were made in joint accounts.

The account that received the most deposits was the one he maintained with Néstor Amado Camargo, when he shared the board of directors of the Apurimac Departmental Club (CDA) in the periods 2017-2019 and 2019-2022.

Furthermore, in 2018, Boluarte ran for Mayor of the Surquillo district in Lima and also received another amount in his accounts.

In the last sworn statement made by Boluarte before the National Elections Jury (JNE), he did not report about some 300,000 soles ($81,700) that he kept in bank accounts, although he did report about his house, his vehicle and his 2018 income.

Amado declared to El Comercio that The money detected in one of the joint accounts belongs to the Apurímac departmental clubsince Boluarte served as president of that association.

However, the UIF report indicates that the Apurímac club reported lower income in that period.

For his part, Boluarte’s campaign manager in the 2021 general elections, Teodoro Berrú, said that Boluarte used the club headquarters in Lima for his political meetings and to receive donations from businessmen.

Other joint accounts are in the name of Víctor Torres Merino, who was hired at the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion when Boluarte was head of that portfolio, and Braulio Grajeda, former vice minister of Territorial Governance and from which the current president transferred an amount of money for the founder of Perú Libre to pay civil compensation in one of his corruption proceedings.