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The 2016 Campaign Contributions Under Investigation in the “Cócteles” Case

The 2016 Campaign Contributions Under Investigation in the “Cócteles” Case
Contents
  1. Table of findings
  2. The “Cócteles” case — financing of the 2011 campaign
  3. The “Cócteles” case — financing of the 2016 campaign
  4. Preliminary detention and pretrial detention (2018-2019)
  5. Trial and the prosecution’s indictment (2024-2025)
  6. Trial annulled by the Constitutional Court (October 2025)
  7. Definitive dismissal of the case (January 2026)
  8. Unsubstantiated electoral fraud claim (2021)
  9. Appointment of people formerly under investigation to her government (September 2026)
  10. Clash with the Judiciary over her UN speech (September 2026)
  11. Annex: open investigations without indictment or judgment
  12. Inquiry regarding contributions made to the 2021 campaign
  13. The Alas Peruanas case
  14. Illicit enrichment investigation (2026)
  15. Sources

Keiko Fujimori Higuchi took office as president of Peru on July 28, 2026, after winning the runoff by a margin of just 49,641 votes over Roberto Sánchez. It was her fourth presidential bid. She comes to office with 69 prosecutorial investigations on her record —51 closed, 18 ongoing—, almost all of them stemming from the “Cócteles” case: the investigation into the irregular financing of her 2011 and 2016 campaigns, which includes acknowledged contributions from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. This file reviews the documented findings about her political career.

Table of findings

N Finding Detail Status
1 “Cócteles” case — 2011 campaign Simulated donations originating from corporate figures and Odebrecht (US$1 million) channeled as “cocktail parties” and raffles Partially acknowledged by the defense team of Fuerza Popular
2 “Cócteles” case — 2016 campaign Unreported funds, such as US$480,000 gathered by José Chlimper Under investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office; lacking a definitive verdict
3 Pretrial detention (2018-2019) Surpassing 13 months behind bars driven by the danger of impeding the inquiry Validated — judicial mandate executed
4 Trial (2024-2025) Charged with criminal organization, money laundering, obstruction, and false statement; the Prosecutor’s Office requested 30 years and 10 months of imprisonment Proceedings conducted; devoid of a substantive conviction
5 Trial annulled by the TC (Oct. 2025) The Constitutional Court invalidated the proceedings due to procedural flaws blamed on the Prosecutor’s Office Validated — TC decree
6 Definitive dismissal (Jan. 2026) The TC mandated the dropping of the money laundering and criminal organization charges concerning the 2011 and 2016 donations Validated — TC decree
7 Unsubstantiated electoral fraud claim (2021) Following her runoff defeat, she advanced the “electoral fraud” thesis and attempted to invalidate ballots Dismissed — the OAS and the EU characterized the ballot as clean
8 Appointment of people formerly under investigation to her government (Sept. 2026) She designated Jaime Yoshiyama, José Chlimper, and Arsenio Oré —investigated in the “Cócteles” inquiry— to a presidential advisory board Corroborated by press reports
9 Clash with the Judiciary over her UN speech (Sept. 2026) During the General Assembly, she challenged the ongoing legal actions against service members regarding the counter-terrorism campaign; the head of the Judiciary rejected her remarks Corroborated — her personal public declaration

The “Cócteles” case — financing of the 2011 campaign

In September 2011, the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) documented that Fuerza Popular (known at the time as Fuerza 2011) reported earnings surpassing S/17 million for that presidential race, featuring a significant amount of transfers from unknown sources. The political organization accounted for a portion of that sum through a pair of gatherings: a cocktail reception in December 2010 that allegedly brought in roughly US$119,750 alongside a second event that same month valued at approximately US$90,000. Ever since 2014, the Prosecutor’s Office has argued that such fundraisers and sweepstakes could not have financed an operation of that magnitude, contending they actually concealed a ring of “simulated contributors,” commonly referred to as “pitufeo” (smurfing)—namely, entrepreneurs who lent their identities to mask the genuine source of the funds. El Comercio reported that Fuerza Popular’s legal team admitted during the trial to the existence of these fictitious donors, while nevertheless rejecting the claim that such actions amounted to money laundering.

Among the backers detected are Dionisio Romero (Credicorp), contributing approximately US$3.65 million, alongside Juan Rassmuss (Sudamericana de Fibras), based on data from Resumen Latinoamericano. Back in February 2019, the former Odebrecht representative in Peru, Jorge Barata, revealed to Peruvian investigators that the Brazilian construction giant funneled US$1.2 million into the 2011 presidential run via Jaime Yoshiyama, as reported by RPP. Furthermore, a personal notebook belonging to Marcelo Odebrecht that surfaced in 2017 contained a specific reference to “increase Keiko,” which was cited by El Comercio.

The “Cócteles” case — financing of the 2016 campaign

The identical inquiry was further widened to encompass the 2016 presidential race, during which Fujimori was defeated in the second round by Pedro Pablo Kuczynski by an exceptionally narrow margin. As reported by Resumen Latinoamericano, back in 2016 José Chlimper Ackerman, serving at that time as the secretary general of Fuerza Popular, allegedly gathered US$480,000 through five separate deliveries, funds whose ultimate whereabouts remained undetermined within the investigative file compiled by prosecutors. An assessment published in 2018 by the Money Laundering Prosecutor’s Office revealed that the political organization managed to justify merely 33% of the total funds secured throughout both electoral contests.

The Prosecutor’s Office, with prosecutor José Domingo Pérez in charge, maintains that Fujimori and the Fuerza Popular leadership used the same mechanism of simulated contributors in 2016 to conceal the origin of the funds, as reconstructed by El Comercio. Among those summoned to testify was former congressman Rolando Reátegui, who entered into a cooperation agreement (colaboración eficaz) and described how he recruited fake contributors in the San Martín region at the request of the party leadership, according to Epicentro.

Preliminary detention and pretrial detention (2018-2019)

In October 2018, Fujimori was held in preliminary custody for a ten-day period as the Prosecutor’s Office examined suspected money laundering tied to the cocktail fundraisers and raffles organized by Fuerza 2011, as reported by Al Jazeera. Several months afterward, magistrate Richard Concepción Carhuancho approved a request from prosecutors for pretrial detention citing potential obstruction of the probe, leaving Fujimori detained at the Anexo de Mujeres facility in Chorrillos for upwards of 13 months, according to La República. Prosecutors maintained at the time that Fujimori “directs, leads and coordinates” the operations of a criminal organization inside her political group. This decision was subsequently reassessed, allowing Fujimori to secure her release, even though she stayed bound by several limitations (comparecencia, a travel prohibition) while the legal proceedings progressed.

Trial and the prosecution’s indictment (2024-2025)

The trial in the “Cócteles” case began on July 1, 2024, against Fujimori, her former partner Mark Vito Villanella and 44 other people, according to Infobae. She was accused of criminal organization, money laundering, obstruction of justice and false statement in an administrative proceeding. The indictment review phase prior to trial had lasted one year and nine months under judge Zúñiga, with a prosecutors’ case file of more than 13,000 pages, according to El Comercio, which also details that the Prosecutor’s Office sought 30 years and 10 months in prison for former advisers Pier Figari and Ana Herz, and 22 years and 8 months for Vito Villanella.

According to the same case file, a protected witness stated that Figari and Herz received money from businesspeople who did not want to appear on the official list of contributors to the 2011 campaign. Fujimori’s defense, for its part, maintained throughout the proceedings that the Prosecutor’s Office would not be able to prove the crime of money laundering.

Trial annulled by the Constitutional Court (October 2025)

Back in October 2025, even as the legal proceedings remained ongoing, the Constitutional Court (TC) voided the judicial process that had kicked off back in 2024. As highlighted by La Válvula, the TC determined that the Prosecutor’s Office had repeatedly amended its indictment in a manner that undermined the accused parties’ right to due process. Rather than ruling on whether the irregular financing actually took place, the decision centered on various procedural flaws attributed to the Public Prosecutor’s Office throughout the lengthy investigation.

Definitive dismissal of the case (January 2026)

As La Válvula reported, in January 2026 the Constitutional Court ordered that the charges of money laundering and criminal organization tied to the contributions to the 2011 and 2016 campaigns be dismissed. The court’s reasoning, as El Comercio reconstructs it, rested on two points: when the investigated events occurred (2011 and 2016), irregular party financing did not exist as a standalone crime —that offense only came into force in 2019— and no criminal organization within the party had been proven. Earlier, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski had benefited from that same procedural path, and his case over Odebrecht contributions was likewise dismissed in 2026; this led Ollanta Humala, convicted for similar acts and still behind bars, to complain publicly.

This dismissal closes, at least within the criminal courts, the judicial front that defined Fujimori’s political trajectory for over a decade.

Unsubstantiated electoral fraud claim (2021)

After losing the 2021 runoff to Pedro Castillo by a margin of 0.25 percentage points, Fujimori initially refused to recognize the result, alleged fraud and filed hundreds of requests to annul tally sheets and votes, according to Wikipedia. The National Elections Jury (JNE) rejected those challenges and proclaimed Castillo the winner on July 19, 2021; only then did Fujimori announce that she would abide by the result.

As La Válvula reported, international electoral observers —the Organization of American States and the European Union among them— found the election to have been clean and competitive. No documented irregularity backed the fraud allegation at a scale that could have overturned the result.

Appointment of people formerly under investigation to her government (September 2026)

On September 16, 2026, now as president, Fujimori appointed Jaime Yoshiyama Tanaka, José Chlimper Ackerman and Arsenio Oré to an Advisory Commission of the Presidential Office, according to La República. Yoshiyama was identified by the Prosecutor’s Office as the person who, according to Jorge Barata’s testimony, received and concealed Odebrecht’s contributions to the 2011 campaign; Chlimper, the party’s secretary general at the time, was investigated for the same crimes attributed to Fujimori (criminal organization, money laundering, false statement and generic falsification). Both had been ministers during the government of Alberto Fujimori.

With the case dismissed in January 2026, none of the three faces any pending charges in the “Cócteles” case, but the appointment revived questions about the president’s closeness to the circle singled out in the case that defined her career.

Clash with the Judiciary over her UN speech (September 2026)

On September 22, 2026, before the United Nations General Assembly, Fujimori stated: “we defeated terrorism, but unfortunately even today, after 34 years, those who took on that mission are still being prosecuted, despite it having been shown that due process was violated,” according to Infobae. The president of the Judiciary, Janet Tello, “completely” rejected those words, and recalled that judges were also murdered in the fight against terrorism and that it was judges who convicted Abimael Guzmán.

Fujimori did not back down. As Infobae reported, her answer was that she would not “stay silent” about “the mistakes of the past.” With that exchange, her government and the head of the Judiciary entered their first public confrontation.

Annex: open investigations without indictment or judgment

These pending inquiries remain unresolved, having yielded neither formal charges nor judicial verdicts thus far. Rather than established truths, they are documented simply as background within her legal history. Ever since she assumed power, Article 117 of the Constitution has served to restrict how these ongoing probes can advance while she remains in office, as reported by Gestión.

Inquiry regarding contributions made to the 2021 campaign

Fujimori, Luis Galarreta, Miguel Torres, Lidman Miranda and Fuerza Popular, as a legal entity, became the subjects of a preparatory investigation on September 30, 2025, when the First Supraprovincial Corporate Prosecutor’s Office Specialized in Money Laundering Crimes formalized it; in RPP‘s account, prosecutors allege they made up a criminal organization that laundered assets by way of the 2021 campaign contributions. Judge Wilson Verástegui set only simple appearance (comparecencia simple), and the probe runs for 36 months.

The prosecution’s case, Infobae reported, rests on false donations whose origin was not declared, on the use of S/1.6 million in public funding for campaign ends, and on S/1,258,708 raised from July 9 to 30, 2021, to contest Pedro Castillo’s win. Several of the people listed as donors have denied making those contributions. Neither an indictment nor a judgment exists.

The Alas Peruanas case

In a probe separate from the “Cócteles” case, prosecutors name Fujimori and her former adviser Pier Figari as the alleged perpetrators of aggravated money laundering, involving money that reportedly came from Universidad Alas Peruanas and from the organization attributed to its founder, Fidel Ramírez —the father of Joaquín Ramírez, a former secretary general of Fuerza Popular. The prosecution’s theory, La República reported, covers S/210,000 received in 2011, S/54,536 received between 2014 and 2015, and two transfers of real estate in Lima.

Fuerza Popular was added to the case as a legal entity by the Fourth National Preparatory Investigation Court on April 30, 2025. However, Gestión later reported that an appeals chamber found that inclusion unlawful and excluded the party from the proceedings. The case against the individuals is still open, and there is no indictment.

Illicit enrichment investigation (2026)

On February 4, 2026, weeks after the “Cócteles” case was dismissed, it emerged that the First Provincial Corporate Prosecutor’s Office Specialized in Public Corruption Crimes of Lima had opened an investigation into Fujimori for illicit enrichment, according to Infobae. The focus is the US$3.6 million in cash that Dionisio Romero allegedly handed her between November 2010 and May 2011; the Prosecutor’s Office notes that her 2010 and 2011 sworn asset declarations as a member of Congress barely changed despite those funds.

Unlike the dismissed matter, which focused on party funding, this inquiry scrutinizes her private wealth. It was designated as complex, carrying an initial duration of eight months. There is no indictment.

Sources

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By Olivia Anderson

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