Former Peruvian leader may have stolen 1.2 billion dollars

Peru's former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori attends his sentence at the Special Police headquarters in Lima, Peru, July 20, 2009. The Special Penal Council of Peru's Supreme Court of Justice on Monday sentenced former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori to seven and a half years in prison for embezzlement.(Xinhua)

LIMA, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Peru's former anti-corruption prosecutor Jose Ugaz estimated Tuesday that former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori might have stolen about 1.2 billion U.S. dollars of state funds.

"Unfortunately, there is not an exact amount to determine, because Fujimori and Vladimiro Montesinos made it impossible to make a full and final investigation on the issue," Ugaz told local daily "La Republica."

Ugaz said Peru has retrieved 275 million dollars, 48 million of which were in Switzerland. The rest was found in the United States and Cayman Islands.

The money was in different bank accounts of Fujimori's accomplices. Many of his accomplices were probably residing in so-called "financial paradises" outside Latin America, Ugaz added.

On Monday, Fujimori was convicted of illegally paying Montesinos, the virtual chief of his National Intelligence Service, 15 million U.S. dollars in state funds. Fujimori defended himself by saying that the money was paid to avoid a coup d'etat plotted by Montesinos.

This is the third conviction Fujimori has received since he returned from exile to Peru in 2007.

Fujimori, 70, was the president of Peru from 1990 to 2000. He has already been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the violation of human rights and to six years for abuse of power.

He still faces another trial for authorizing bribery, telephone tapping and misusing public funds in the purchase of a news channel.

Fujimori fled to Japan in 2000 upon the collapse of his government after corruption scandals. He was arrested in Chile and extradited to Peru in 2007.