Ecuador sentences ex-president Moreno to five years in jail in bribery case

What the report says

An Ecuadorian court has convicted former president Lenin Moreno in a bribery case linked to the country’s largest hydroelectric project, the Coca Codo Sinclair plant, according to Al Jazeera and the Ecuadorian prosecutor’s office. Moreno, 73, was sentenced to five years in prison and permanently barred from holding public office. The ruling was issued in Quito on Friday by Judge Manuel Cabrera, who said the evidence matched the prosecution’s charges.

The case stems from an investigation opened in March 2023 into alleged corruption involving Moreno, members of his family, and Ecuadorian and Chinese business figures. Prosecutors said the alleged scheme involved fraudulent consulting contracts tied to the plant, with funds moving through offshore accounts and shell companies before reaching Moreno’s relatives and associates. The public prosecutor’s office said Chinese state-owned company Sinohydro paid about $76.1 million in bribes between 2009 and 2018, according to its account of the case.

Moreno’s wife, daughter, two brothers and their wives were also convicted and given two-and-a-half-year sentences, while Cai Runguo, China’s former ambassador to Quito, received a five-year term. Moreno, who was Ecuador’s president from 2017 to 2021 and vice president from 2007 to 2013, has denied wrongdoing and said he had no role in the contracts. The case is significant because it centers on a major public infrastructure project that has faced technical problems since it began operating in 2016.