Lenín Moreno, former president of Ecuador, was found guilty of corruption

The court has not yet defined the sentence for Moreno, for whom the Prosecutor’s Office requested six years and six months in prison. A court of the Supreme National Court of Justice (CNJ), based in Quito, “has reported that 4 of the defendants, including Lenín M., are responsible for the crime of bribery,” the organization noted in its account on X.

The verdict points to the years in which Moreno was Rafael Correa’s vice president. The judges of the Court of Ecuador assured that the Chinese company paid millionaire resources to a business circle that were later distributed to different companies and people, including members of the former president’s family.

In addition to Moreno, the Prosecutor’s Office also requested six years and six months in prison for his wife, Rocío González; the daughter of both, Irina Moreno; and 17 other people, including former Chinese ambassador Cai Runguo.

According to the judges, Moreno used his position as vice president to intervene in an “area outside his leadership” with the aim of favoring Sinohydro, and therefore obtained benefits through third parties.

“The indirect benefit received through third parties does not leave aside the assessment of the functional performance of the defendant, but rather contributes to the financial correlation that, as a whole, establishes the nature of obtaining undue resources,” said the rapporteur judge in front of Moreno and his wife, who are in the CNJ courtroom.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the former president and his family allegedly received more than a million dollars out of a total of 76 million dollars in bribes that Sinohydro allegedly paid for the construction of Coca Codo Sinclair, with a power of up to 1,500 megawatts.

In addition to the prison sentence, the Prosecutor’s Office requested that all defendants be disqualified from holding public office or having contractual ties with the State, that their participation rights be suspended and that a fine and payment of comprehensive reparation be imposed.

He also requested that they apologize publicly and that an “anti-corruption appointment” be installed at the hydroelectric complex.

For more than six hours, the court detailed how the crime of bribery was configured in this case and is individualizing the responsibilities of each of the 20 defendants.

Before the start of the hearing, Moreno said that he had decided to attend in person because I wanted to “show my face” and assured, as he has said on other occasions, that this trial was an alleged “revenge” orchestrated by former President Correa.

Sinohydro began construction of the Coca Codo Sinclair plant in 2010 at a cost of around $2 billion and delivered it in 2016. The work has been questioned due to structural flaws.

Moreno, a tourism businessman, achieved notoriety in 2007 when he became vice president under Correa (2007-2017). As vice president, he accompanied him until 2013, when he was succeeded by Jorge Glas.

In 2017, Moreno won the presidential elections representing the Correísta movement in a pairing with Glas—who later left office and is now also serving time in prison for corruption. But shortly after taking office, he separated from the political group, denouncing irregularities and became the enemy of his mentor. His former co-religionists described him as disloyal.

Moreno has accused Glas of being responsible for the alleged corruption, alleging that his successor directed the strategic sectors during the Correa government.

After leaving the presidency, he settled in Paraguay for five years and returned to Ecuador last May to face trial.