An Ecuadorian court on Friday sentenced ex-president Lenin Moreno to five years in prison for accepting bribes from a Chinese company that built the country’s biggest hydroelectric dam.
According to the prosecution, Moreno, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, was one of 20 defendants convicted in the case concerning Sinohydro’s building of the Coca Codo Sinclair dam in China.
Between 2007 and 2013, Moreno served as vice president to leftist President Rafael Correa.
He succeeded Correa with his mentor’s support but later fell out with him after turning to the right and associating himself more closely with the United States.
Moreno has already announced plans to challenge the court’s decision, which condemned his wife and other relatives to roughly three years in prison for collaboration.
Prosecutors wanted a six-and-a-half-year jail sentence for Moreno.
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The 73-year-old paraplegic, who formerly served as the United Nations special envoy on disability problems, said Friday following the ruling that he had never received “a single cent” from Sinohydro.
He blamed the prosecution on “the Correa regime,” claiming that his erstwhile backer-turned-rival, who has also been convicted of corruption but resides in Belgium, “promised to take revenge on me.”
Prosecutors allege that Sinohydro paid bribes totaling $76 million, or around 4% of the cost of the hydroelectric project.
In addition to Moreno, two former power plant managers were found guilty.
