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An offshore scheme in Aruba could be behind a chunk of money that has flown into Peru’s Popular Force party of presidential front-runner Keiko Fujimori, local media reported Wednesday, while a final decision on whether the daughter of the country’s former dictator will be disqualified from the race remains in limbo.
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Jaime Yoshiyama, former minister under the Fujimori dictatorship, set up an offshore company in Aruba in 1990 which has absorbed a number of companies over the years headed by family members of other former Popular Force politicians, Peru’s La Republica reported.
Unraveling a tangled web of mergers, shell companies, and tax havens under Yoshiyama’s Pegapaxi company, La Republica traced the scheme back to Aruba, identifying Yoshiyama as one of Popular Forces’ main financiers.
One of the companies overtaken by Pegapaxi in 2012 was the company Inverplus, founded in 1990 by another Popular Force minister under the Fujimori regime, Efrain Goldenberg.
At the same time, Pegapaxi also transferred over US$1 million in a split with another brand new company founded by the Yoshiyama and Goldenberg families, which in turn absorbed another company soon after which was backed by the same families.
All the while, big money with roots in an offshore scheme shuffled around but ultimately stayed in the hands of a few families who were all close allies of the Fujimori dictatorship and supporters of the Popular Force party.
Fujimori’s party has also been boosted through a company called LVF Liberty Institute, set up in the U.S. state of Delaware to funnel funds back to Popular Force. The entity’s representative also has links to Yoshiyama.
Yoshiyama, el oculto financista de Keiko aún debe explicaciones sobre cómo financió campaña para su padre el 93' pic.twitter.com/NoaOcN6J60
— Hurgar en la Memoria (@hurgamemoriaPE) March 23, 2016
"Yoshiyama, Keiko's hidden financier, still owes an explanation about how he financed her father's campaign in '93."
Meanwhile, allegations of dirty money games are also swirling around the front-runner closer to home as electoral authorities have yet to release a decision on the multiple pending requests for Keiko Fujimori to be axed from the presidential ballot over alleged vote-buying.
41 Candidates Accused of Corruption
Less than three weeks from election day, Fujimori and her main rival Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, as well as 39 other candidates for Congress, still face the possibility of being kicked out of the campaign over accusations of corruption.
The shadow of uncertainty hanging over the elections so close to voting day, as well at as the shake-up caused by the disqualification of two presidential candidates earlier this months, has raised questions of electoral fairness and transparency in the campaign.
A recent Ipsos poll shows Fujimori holding a strong lead with 30 percent, followed by Kuczynski with 15 percent. Alfredo Barnechea and leftist candidate Veronika Mendoza are tied for third place with around 11.5 percent of the vote.
Whichever candidate secures the second-place vote in the elections on April 10 will face off against Fujimori in a runoff vote in June.
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