Walther Javier Delgado Tovar joined the Basel Institute on Governance in November 2021 as a Senior Specialist, Asset Recovery working with the Green Corruption programme.

In this role, he supports prosecutors and specialised environmental prosecutors in Peru and Bolivia in implementing financial investigations in order to recover illicit assets. This includes through training, mentoring, legal technical assistance, case strategy design and international cooperation.

Walther has worked for 16 years as a criminal prosecutor, dedicating the last 10 years to the investigation and prosecution of highly complex national corruption cases committed by criminal organisations. He participated as Deputy Prosecutor in the oral trials against former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for crimes of corruption of public officials and crimes against humanity. He was also involved in the successful prosecutions of several regional Peruvian heads of governments and mayors for crimes including illicit enrichment, money laundering and aggravated collusion, and succeeded in recovering significant quantities of assets in these cases. 

Walther has wide-ranging expertise in special investigative procedures, such as effective collaboration, and was a member of the Steering Committee of the National Commission of Seized Assets, an entity in charge of the administration of seized and confiscated assets.

He has written several books on criminal matters, criminal procedure and Extinción de dominio (Peru’s non-conviction based forfeiture law), and more than a dozen articles in specialised journals. He has been heavily involved in the implementation of the extinción de dominio law in Peru, through his academic publications since 2009.

Walther holds a Bachelor of Law and a Master's in Criminal Sciences, and has studied for a PhD in Law and Political Science from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru.