QUITO, Ecuador — In a landmark ruling that marks another high-profile conviction of a former head of state in Ecuador’s long-running crackdown on systemic political corruption, an Ecuadorian court sentenced ex-president Lenín Moreno to five years of incarceration on Friday. The 73-year-old former leader was found guilty of accepting illegal bribes from a Chinese construction firm in exchange for facilitating the award of a multi-billion-dollar contract for a major hydroelectric power project.
Moreno, who uses a wheelchair due to a permanent physical disability that prevents him from walking, was present in the courtroom for the verdict reading. Per court order, he will serve his entire sentence under house arrest rather than in a traditional prison facility, in consideration of his mobility impairment.
The court’s conviction extends beyond Moreno himself. His wife, daughter, two brothers, and brother-in-law were all found guilty of acting as accomplices in the coordinated bribery scheme. Moreno’s wife and daughter each received 30-month prison sentences, and all five convicted co-defendants have been ordered to pay restitution equal to three times the amount of their illegal gains within a 90-day deadline.
Prosecutors laid out that the corruption network operated between 2008 and 2018, collecting illegal bribes equal to 4% of the total contract value of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant, which was developed by China’s Sinohydro. The illicit funds were moved through a web of domestic and international financial transactions to bribe public officials and distribute payouts to private beneficiaries, including Moreno, who was serving as vice president under then-president Rafael Correa at the time the scheme was launched.
Sinohydro broke ground on the roughly $2 billion Coca Codo Sinclair project in 2010 and completed construction, turning the facility over to the Ecuadorian government in 2016. In the years since its completion, the dam has been the subject of widespread public criticism over repeated reports of serious structural defects that have impacted its operation and long-term viability.
Moreno first entered national politics in 2007, when he was selected as Correa’s running mate and took office as vice president, a post he held until 2013. He was succeeded in that role by Jorge Glas, who would later become Moreno’s own running mate when Moreno won the 2017 presidential election as the candidate of Correa’s left-wing Correísta movement. Glas has since left office and is currently serving a prison sentence for corruption convictions.
Friday’s conviction makes Moreno the third former Ecuadorian president to be handed a prison sentence for corruption-related offenses in recent years, though the crimes for which he was convicted occurred before he took the nation’s highest office. His predecessor in the presidency, Rafael Correa, was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2020 for his role in a separate bribery scandal involving Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht. Correa has lived in Belgium for years and remains outside the reach of Ecuadorian law enforcement. Before that, former president Jamil Mahuad was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2014 for misappropriation of public funds. Another ex-president, Abdalá Bucaram, has already been convicted of organized crime charges and is currently awaiting sentencing.