Odebrecht says dealings with Peru president were legitimate
LIMA, (Reuters) - Brazilian builder Odebrecht said Saturday that its recentlydisclosed business ties to embattled Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski were not part of the corrupt deals it struck with politicians that it has acknowledged to prosecutors.
The assertion might strengthen Kuczynski’s bid to survive a vote to remove him from office on Thursday in the opposition-ruled Congress over allegations he took bribes from Odebrecht, which is at the center of Latin America’s biggest graft scandal.
Earlier this week, Odebrecht sent Congress a requested report detailing deposits totaling $4.8 million that it paid to two companies owned by Kuczynski or a close business associate of his for financial and advising services.
Kuczynski, who previously denied any links to the company, has resisted calls to resign over the transactions and said there was nothing improper about them.
Odebrecht denied accusations by an influential journalist with the newspaper La Republica that the disclosure was an attempt to overthrow Kuczynski in collusion with the right-wing opposition.
It was able to disclose the transactions because there was no sign they were part of any of its past criminal activities, which it can only discuss with public prosecutors, Odebrecht said.
“They were duly paid and officially accounted for,” Odebrecht said in a letter to La Republica that it made public on Twitter on Saturday.
“Odebrecht is obligated by law to send requested information to relevant authorities,” including an investigative committee in Congress, the company said.
Odebrecht has rocked Latin American politics with its public confession a year ago that it orchestrated sophisticated kickback schemes across a dozen countries for more than a decade - landing elites in jail from Colombia to the Dominican Republic.
Late on Friday, lawmakers passed a motion to start “presidential vacancy” procedures with enough votes to unseat Kuczynski in a vote it scheduled for Thursday. TORONTO, (Reuters) - Canadian police are investigating the mysterious deaths of pharmaceuticals billionaire Barry Sherman, founder of Apotex Inc, and his wife Honey, whose bodies were found in their Toronto mansion on Friday.
Authorities were conducting postmortem examinations on Saturday and treating the deaths as suspicious. A Toronto Police spokesman said that nothing had been ruled out in the probe.
Two Canadian newspapers reported that police were investigating the deaths as a possible murder-suicide, citing unidentified police sources.
The bodies were found hanging from a railing on the edge of a basement swimming pool, the Globe and Mail and Toronto Sun reported, citing police sources.
The newspapers reported that investigators were working on the theory that Barry Sherman, 75, killed his wife, hung her body and then hanged himself at the pool’s edge.
Apotex released a statement Saturday saying that the Sherman family was disturbed by the reports.