Former Ecuadorian President Sentenced to Five Years for Bribery

A former president of Ecuador has been sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of taking bribes.

Lenín Moreno, who was president between 2017 and 2021, insists he did not accept money from the Chinese firm Sinohydro, which secured a contract to build a hydroelectric plant in the Latin American nation.

The 73‑year‑old will serve his sentence under house arrest due to his age and disability and has already indicated his intention to appeal after a Quito court found him and nineteen others guilty of corruption.

Moreno is the third former Ecuadorian leader to be sentenced for corruption.

Prosecutors alleged that Sinohydro, owned by the Chinese state, paid a total of $76.1 million (£56.2 million) through shell companies to people involved in the deal that secured construction of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric dam.

Those convicted of bribery, including Moreno’s wife, daughter, brother, former plant managers, Sinohydro representatives and a Chinese ambassador to Ecuador, will have to repay three times what they were given and Moreno was barred from public office.

While Moreno himself was alleged to have received only modest amounts, prosecutors say family members received tens of thousands of dollars.

Moreno denied involvement in the alleged bribery scheme and blamed former president Rafael Correa, under whom he served as vice‑president and who was sentenced to eight years in a separate bribery case in 2020.

He argued that Correa had signed off on the project and that he had launched an investigation into construction issues once he assumed the presidency.

The Ecuadorian government launched legal proceedings against Sinohydro in 2021 amid cracks appearing in the dam and other technical failures; it reached a $400 million settlement with the firm’s owner earlier this year.

Both Sinohydro and the Chinese embassy in Ecuador have been approached for comment.