Judge orders detention of former Peruvian president

FILE - In this March 9, 2017 file photo, Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski listens to a question during a press conference in Lima, Peru. A judge in Peru on Wednesday, April 10, 2019, ordered the detention for 10 days of Kucyznksi as part of a money laundering probe into his consulting work for Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, at the heart of Latin America’s biggest graft scandal. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File)

LIMA, Peru – A judge in Peru has ordered the 10-day detention of former President Pedro Pablo Kucyznksi as part of a money laundering probe into his consulting work for the company at the heart of Latin America's biggest graft scandal.

The 80-year-old Kuczynski resigned last year after opposition lawmakers seeking his impeachment revealed that his private consulting firm had received some $782,000 in previously undisclosed payments from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht more than a decade ago.

Some of those payments overlap with his years as a government minister

The preliminary arrest of the pro-American conservative was ordered Wednesday.

Three of Kuczynski's predecessors have also been charged or are under investigation for alleged ties to Odebrecht.