Friend of Peru’s Alejandro Toledo attempts to reclaim frozen funds in Costa Rica bank

Peruvian businessman Josef Maiman filed a legal complaint this week with the Costa Rican Prosecutors’ Office in an attempt to recover $6.5 million that is frozen in a bank account belonging to companies linked to ex-president Alejandro Toledo, the daily Perú21 reported.

Last June, the Costa Rican Prosecutor’s Office’s Economic Crimes and Money Laundering Unit blocked the Scotiabank account of Ecostate Consulting, which is linked to Ecoteva Corporation, a company registered by Avraham Dan On, one of Toledo’s bodyguards.

The account was used to transfer more than $5 million to Toledo’s mother-in-law, Eve Fernenbug, who used the money to buy several properties in exclusive areas of Lima.

Maiman filed the request through his attorneys in San José, arguing that he provided the funds as an investor in Ecoteva Corporation, and that all funds have legal origins. Maiman said he “has not committed any crime,” and offered to provide information on his Swiss bank account, from where the money was originally transferred to Costa Rica.

Perú21 said it has proof that Ecostate Consulting’s account at Scotiabank initially had some $20 million, and that “days before the order to freeze the account, several people linked to Maiman withdrew some $5.5 million without specifying the money’s destination.”

In a statement to Peruvian prosecutors, Maiman, who is a close friend of Toledo, declared that $20 million in his account “was transferred to Ecostate Consulting and Milan Ecotech, and then was sent to Ecoteva Consulting.”

Peru’s Prosecutor’s Office is investigating alleged embezzlement by several public officials from Toledo’s administration from 2001-2006.