In Quito, a court has found former Ecuadorian president Lenín Moreno guilty of accepting bribes from a Chinese state firm, sentencing him to five years to be served under house arrest. The case, rooted in a $76.1 million scheme tied to the construction of a major hydroelectric dam, ensnared not only Moreno but his wife, daughter, and brother — a reminder that corruption rarely travels alone. His conviction makes him the third former Ecuadorian head of state to face such a reckoning, placing this moment within a longer national struggle to hold power accountable to the people it was meant to se
Former Ecuadorian President Moreno Sentenced to Five Years for Bribery
Moreno's immediate family members, including his wife and daughter, were imprisoned as part of the corruption conviction.
The conviction bars Moreno from holding public office in the future.
Mark
So Moreno was president for four years and then got convicted years later for something that happened during his term. How much money are we actually talking about that he personally took?
Mimi
That's the interesting part—prosecutors say he took very little himself. The $76.1 million went mostly to other people, including his family members. His wife, daughter, and brother each got tens of thousands of dollars.
Luke
But we should be careful here. The source says prosecutors "alleged" this and that Moreno "was alleged" to have received very little. Those are prosecutorial claims, not established facts yet, since Moreno is appealing.
Mimi
Right, and that's exactly why he's appealing. He says he didn't know about it, that the previous president Correa signed off on the whole project.
Mark
Did Correa get convicted too?
Mimi
Yes, but separately. Correa got eight years in 2020 for a different bribery case. So you have two former presidents, both convicted of corruption, both blaming each other.
Luke
And we don't actually know yet if Moreno's conviction will hold. He's appealing, and appeals in corruption cases can take a long time. The verdict is real, but it's not final.
Mark
What about the dam itself? Did it actually work?
Mimi
No. Cracks appeared, there were technical failures. The government sued Sinohydro in 2021 and settled for $400 million this year.
Luke
So the dam failed, the company paid to fix it, and separately, people involved in the original deal got convicted of taking bribes. Those are two different problems.
Mark
And his family is in prison too?
Mimi
His wife, daughter, and brother were all convicted and sentenced. They'll serve time as well.
Der Puls
- A court in Quito convicted Moreno and 19 others — including his closest family members — in a bribery scheme worth $76.1 million funneled through shell companies by Chinese state firm Sinohydro.
- The dam at the center of the deal, Coca Codo Sinclair, later developed serious structural cracks, turning a corrupt bargain into both a legal and engineering catastrophe.
- Moreno deflects blame toward his predecessor Rafael Correa, who was himself sentenced to eight years in a separate bribery case in 2020, deepening the sense of systemic rot at Ecuador's highest levels.
- Those convicted face repaying triple what they received, while the Ecuadorian government separately secured a $400 million settlement with Sinohydro over the dam's technical failures.
- Moreno, 73 and disabled, will serve under house arrest and has signaled an appeal — meaning the final chapter of this conviction remains unwritten for months to come.
In Quito, a court has found former Ecuadorian president Lenín Moreno guilty of accepting bribes from a Chinese state firm, sentencing him to five years to be served under house arrest. The case, rooted in a $76.1 million scheme tied to the construction of a major hydroelectric dam, ensnared not only Moreno but his wife, daughter, and brother — a reminder that corruption rarely travels alone. His conviction makes him the third former Ecuadorian head of state to face such a reckoning, placing this moment within a longer national struggle to hold power accountable to the people it was meant to serve.
Lenín Moreno, who governed Ecuador from 2017 to 2021, has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in a corruption scheme involving Sinohydro, a Chinese state-owned firm. Prosecutors say the company paid $76.1 million through shell companies to secure the contract for the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric dam. Because of his age and disability, Moreno will serve under house arrest. He has announced plans to appeal.
The conviction swept up 20 people in total, among them Moreno's wife, daughter, and brother, as well as former plant managers, Sinohydro representatives, and a former Chinese ambassador to Ecuador. While prosecutors acknowledged that Moreno personally received little from the arrangement, they argued his family collected tens of thousands of dollars each. All those found guilty have been ordered to repay three times what they received.
Moreno has denied any wrongdoing, directing blame at his predecessor Rafael Correa — under whom he served as vice-president — noting that Correa approved the dam project. Correa was himself sentenced to eight years in prison in 2020 in a separate bribery case. Moreno's defense also pointed to his own administration's investigation into construction problems at the dam, which later proved well-founded: cracks and technical failures led Ecuador to file legal proceedings against Sinohydro in 2021, ultimately resulting in a $400 million settlement.
The verdict makes Moreno the third former Ecuadorian president sentenced for corruption, a sobering pattern that speaks to the depth of the country's struggle with graft in high office. That his wife and daughter now face prison alongside him extends the human cost of the case far beyond the political. Whether his appeal will alter that outcome remains to be seen.
Lenín Moreno, who led Ecuador from 2017 to 2021, has been sentenced to five years in prison after a court in Quito found him guilty of accepting bribes from a Chinese state-owned company. The 73-year-old will serve his sentence under house arrest, a provision made because of his age and a disability. He has already signaled his intention to appeal the verdict.
The conviction centers on a scheme involving Sinohydro, a firm owned by the Chinese state, which prosecutors say paid $76.1 million through shell companies to secure a contract to build the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric dam in Ecuador. Moreno was one of 20 people convicted in the case. Among the others were his wife, his daughter, his brother, former managers of the plant, representatives of Sinohydro, and a Chinese ambassador to Ecuador. While prosecutors alleged that Moreno himself received very little from the arrangement, they said his family members collected tens of thousands of dollars each.
Moreno has consistently denied any involvement in the bribery scheme. Instead, he has pointed the finger at Rafael Correa, the former president under whom Moreno served as vice-president. Correa was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2020 for a separate bribery case. Moreno's defense rests on the argument that Correa approved the Coca Codo Sinclair project and that Moreno himself launched an investigation into construction problems once he took office. The conviction bars Moreno from holding public office in the future.
Those found guilty of bribery in the case have been ordered to repay three times the amount they received. The Ecuadorian government's own reckoning with Sinohydro came later: in 2021, authorities filed legal proceedings against the company after cracks appeared in the dam and other technical failures emerged. The government and Sinohydro's owner reached a $400 million settlement earlier this year.
Moreno's conviction makes him the third former Ecuadorian president to be sentenced for corruption, a pattern that underscores the country's struggle with graft at the highest levels of government. The case also illustrates how corruption investigations can reach into the families of those accused—Moreno's wife and daughter now face prison time alongside him, a consequence that extends the legal and personal fallout well beyond the former president himself. His appeal will likely take months to resolve, leaving the question of whether the conviction will ultimately stand.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
Moreno argued that Correa had signed off on the Coca Codo Sinclair project, and that he had launched an investigation into issues with the construction when he assumed the presidency.— Moreno's defense position
Möchten Sie die ganze Geschichte?
Das Original lesen bei BBC News ↗
Crime & Justice