Peru opens laundering probe into Montesinos' Swiss accounts

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) -- Peru's government said Thursday it will investigate the Swiss bank accounts of fugitive ex-spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos after the discovery of $48 million that could signal involvement in money laundering.

Montesinos had three accounts in separate banks in Switzerland, according to information from the Swiss embassy in Lima, which urged Peru to open a probe, Justice Minister Alberto Bustamante told reporters.

"The Swiss government is inviting us to do everything possible to investigate what could be the existence of money laundering in these accounts, which we knew nothing about and which are quite staggering," he said after meeting President Alberto Fujimori.

"(We have) ordered the lifting of his bank secrecy both nationally and internationally."

Montesinos, Fujimori's top aide for 10 years, sparked Peru's biggest political crisis in a decade after allegations in September that be bribed a lawmaker forced Fujimori to call early elections and declare he would quit office four years early.

The ex-spy chief, who has faced no formal criminal charges despite a number of corruption investigations in Peru over the years, fled to Panama in September before returning last week to Peru.

Fujimori launched a manhunt for the spy chief but Montesinos remains in hiding.

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