Ecuador: Order for the Arrest of Lenin Moreno | A corruption case related to the establishment of a hydroelectric power station

The Ecuadorean Attorney General’s Office asked this Friday House arrest of former President Lenin Morenowho accuse him, along with 36 other people, of allegedly corruption Receiving bribes from a Chinese company in exchange for a contract to build the country’s largest hydroelectric power station.

Attorney general , Diana Salazarrequesting “pretrial detention for all those investigated; but because 14 of them are over 65 years old (…) house arrest is required”, as in the case of Moreno, the accused referred to in her Twitter account.

As the prosecutor asked the judge Adrian Rojasfrom the National Court of Justice, by blocking and freezing the accounts of all those accused, including those who reside abroad, as is the case with Moreno, who has worked in Paraguay since 2021 as a commissioner for disability issues for the Organization of American States (OAS).

In this sense, he asked the judge for permission to do so He requested international judicial cooperation from Switzerland, Spain, China, Panama, Paraguay, the United States and Belize.

The former president is 69 and uses a wheelchair after being shot during the 1998 assault., the “highest amount ever prosecuted for acts of corruption in Ecuador”.

The project

The alleged corruption network operated from 2009 to 2018 around the construction of the hydroelectric project Coca-Codo Sinclair, which cost $2,345 million And he was responsible for Chinese company Sinohydro.

The hydroelectric power station, located between the departments of Napo and Sucumbios (east) of the Amazon, began operating in 2016 and has The ability to cover 30 percent of the national energy demand. However, damage to its infrastructure was revealed.

during the socialist government Rafael Correa (2007-2017), who was sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption in the “bribery 2012-2016” case, Moreno served as vice president for the first six years and was then elected president for the 2017-2021 period.

corruption network

Moreno, his wife, daughter, brothers and sisters are participating in the investigation. His relative is also part of the investigation Conto Patino His family and officials of his company “Commercial Recorsa”, from which bribes will be distributed. In addition, two directors of Coca Codo Sinclair and a former Chinese ambassador to Ecuador who later became Sinohydro’s legal representative in the South American country are involved in the plot.

The Sinohydro case broke out in 2019, when the La Fuente newspaper portal published an investigation into itIt involved one of Moreno’s brothers with alleged accounts in tax havens A luxury property in Alicante (Spain), in the obvious triangle of an opaque company.

In that press report, a series of alleged links and irregularities were revealed that linked Moreno to the “offshore” company INA Investment, leading to a preliminary investigation by the Attorney General’s Office on alleged bribes collected while serving as Vice President of Ecuador, during the presidential term. Rafael Correa (2007-2017).

Former President Koka Kudu Sinclair said, in a statement via his Twitter account, on February 22, that the former governor categorically denied that complaint, “I do not have and do not have any responsibility in contracting the work.” “I will defend myself by absolute adherence to the truth” so that there is not the slightest doubt as to my innocence, my innocence, and the innocence of my family.The former governor, who was appointed in 2013 as the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Disabilities, noted the former governor.

According to the attorney general’s office, the Moreno family group had received about $660,000 from the corruption network. To determine the amount, authorities investigated the company’s banking information ina investment, Associated with Moreno, through which an apartment was purchased in Spain and furniture for a house in Switzerland.

The attorney general assigned the remaining $440,000 to Moreno’s brothers Edwin ($350,000) and Guillermo ($10,000), his daughter Irina ($50,000), his sisters-in-law Jacqueline ($10,000) and Martha ($15,000), and his mother. Aida Graciela ($5,000).

Last year, the prosecution opened an investigation against Moreno allegedly embezzlement relating to heritage objects supposedly missing from the Château Carondelet, The seat of the national government.