Court Jails Ex-President Five Years Over $76million Bribery Scandal
Court Jails Ex-President Five Years Over $76million Bribery Scandal
Moreno, who has a physical disability that prevents him from walking, attended Friday’s verdict hearing and will serve his sentence under house arrest.
Ecuador’s former President Lenín Moreno has been sentenced to five years in prison after a court found him guilty of accepting bribes linked to the construction of the country’s largest hydroelectric power project.
The 73-year-old former president was convicted over a corruption scheme involving the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant, a roughly $2billion project constructed by Chinese state-owned company Sinohydro.
Moreno, who has a physical disability that prevents him from walking, attended Friday’s verdict hearing and will serve his sentence under house arrest.
Judge Manuel Cabrera, who headed the tribunal, said the evidence established Moreno’s involvement in bribery while he was serving as Ecuador’s vice president under former President Rafael Correa.
“Lenin Moreno’s conduct is consistent with the charges brought by the prosecution: the crime of bribery attributed to a public official,” Cabrera said while delivering the verdict, according to Al Jazeera.
Prosecutors said Sinohydro paid about $76.1 million in illegal commissions between 2009 and 2018 through fictitious consulting contracts as part of a corruption network established around the hydroelectric project.
The investigation, launched by Ecuador’s attorney general in March 2023, implicated Moreno, members of his family, and Ecuadorian and Chinese business associates.
According to prosecutors, the bribes were moved through foreign bank accounts and shell companies registered in tax havens before being distributed among officials and other beneficiaries.
They alleged that Moreno and close relatives received more than $1 million while he was vice president between 2007 and 2013.
Moreno has repeatedly rejected the allegations and denied having any role in awarding, signing, or supervising contracts for the hydroelectric project.
“You’re looking in the wrong place. Look at those who signed the contracts, at those who had the habit of demanding kickbacks,” Moreno told the court during the proceedings.
The court also convicted Moreno’s wife and daughter, his two brothers and their wives as accomplices in the scheme. They were each handed sentences of two and a half years.
The family members were additionally ordered to repay three times the amount they allegedly received illegally within 90 days.
Cai Runguo, China’s former ambassador to Ecuador, was also sentenced to five years in prison over his alleged involvement in the corruption scheme.
The Coca Codo Sinclair plant began operations in 2016 after Sinohydro completed construction. The facility has since been plagued by technical and structural problems, prompting criticism over the quality and cost of the project.
Prosecutors told the court that the corruption network operated between 2008 and 2018 and extracted kickbacks equivalent to about four per cent of the project’s value.
Moreno became Ecuador’s vice president in 2007 under Correa and remained in the position until 2013.
He later won the presidency in 2017 as a candidate of Correa’s political movement, serving as president until 2021.
His conviction makes him the third former Ecuadorian president to be sentenced for corruption-related offences.
Correa, who served as president for a decade, was sentenced in 2020 to eight years in prison after being convicted in a separate bribery case involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. He has remained outside Ecuador.
Former President Jamil Mahuad was sentenced to eight years in 2014 for misuse of public funds, while another ex-president, Abdalá Bucaram, has been convicted of organised crime and is awaiting sentencing.
