Former Ecuadorian President Moreno seeks suspension of sentence
Former Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno and former Chinese ambassador to Quito Cai Runguo have asked the country’s highest court to suspend the enforcement of the five-year sentences imposed on them in a $76 million bribery case. As reported by the South China Morning Post, the court will consider Moreno’s petition on September 7.
A panel of three judges of the National Court of Justice found Moreno guilty of bribery in the case involving contracts for the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric power plant, Ecuador’s largest hydropower project. The judges unanimously determined that, while serving as vice president from 2007 to 2013, he facilitated financing for the plant, which was built by Chinese state-owned company Sinohydro, a PowerChina subsidiary.
Petition to suspend the sentence
Moreno has not been detained and remains in Ecuador. If the sentence remains in force, due to paraplegia he will serve it at home rather than in prison. If the petition is granted, the prison term may be suspended and replaced with conditions, including a requirement to check in periodically.
The former president denied receiving funds from Sinohydro. His defense insists that the version of the criminal code in force at the beginning of the bribery scheme in 2009 should be applied. An anti-corruption reform in February 2021 added bribery to the list of crimes for which suspension of sentences of up to five years is not permitted.
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Lawyers for Cai, who served as China’s ambassador to Ecuador from 2007 to 2011, filed a similar petition. In total, 13 convicted individuals submitted such requests, but the court will consider the applications of 12 of them because one was filed late.
The case surrounding the hydroelectric plant
The $1.9 billion contract with Sinohydro was signed in 2009, and the following year the Export-Import Bank of China provided a loan of about $1.68 billion on the condition that the work would be carried out by a Chinese company. Prosecutors said that payments between 2009 and 2018 amounted to about 4% of the contract’s value and were mostly routed through a company linked to Moreno’s friend Conto Patiño and accounts in Panama, disguised as consulting services.
After completing his diplomatic term, Cai joined Sinohydro and became its legal representative in 2013. According to prosecutors, he met with Moreno while both held office, facilitated the financing, and later helped organize the payments.
Twenty of the 21 defendants were convicted in the case, including Moreno’s wife, daughter, two brothers and a relative by marriage as accomplices. Officials, including Moreno, were permanently barred from working in public service, while the amount of compensation exceeded $163 million. The court has not yet published the written text of its decision; after that, the deadline for filing appeals will begin to run.
