QUITO, Aug 28 (Reuters) – An Ecuadorean court found former President Lenin Moreno guilty on Friday in a bribery case tied to the construction of the Andean country’s largest hydroelectric plant, the public prosecutor’s office said.
Moreno, 73, was sentenced to five years in prison and has been permanently barred from holding any public office in the future.
The attorney general’s office launched the investigation in March 2023, linking Moreno, family members and local and Chinese business partners, including China’s former ambassador to Quito, to an alleged corruption network tied to the construction of the Coca Codo Sinclair plant, which began operating in 2016 and has experienced technical problems since.
“Lenin Moreno’s conduct is consistent with the charges brought by the prosecution: the crime of bribery attributed to a public official,” Judge Manuel Cabrera, head of the tribunal, said while delivering the ruling.
His wife and daughter, as well as his two brothers and sisters-in-law were also found guilty, and were sentenced to two years and six months in prison. China’s former ambassador to Quito, Cai Runguo, was also sentenced to five years behind bars.
Prosecutors had requested sentences of more than six years for Moreno and 19 other defendants. According to the attorney general’s office, Sinohydro paid approximately $76.1 million in bribes between 2009 and 2018 through fraudulent consulting contracts.
Investigators alleged the funds were routed via overseas bank accounts and shell companies in tax havens to Moreno’s family and business associates. The prosecution said Moreno and his close relatives received more than $1 million while he served as vice president from 2007 to 2013.
Moreno, 73, has consistently denied the allegations, maintaining he had no involvement in signing or overseeing the project’s contracts.
“A word of advice to the prosecutor: you’re looking in the wrong place. Look at those who signed the contracts, at those who had the habit of demanding kickbacks, you’re looking in the wrong place,” Moreno said at the hearing.
Moreno, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, returned to Ecuador from Paraguay to face the trial.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia, Editing by Natalia Siniawski and Stephen Coates)
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