Ecuador's Ex-Leader Faces Prison for China Dam Bribery Scheme

QUITO, ECUADOR — A Ecuadorian court on Friday sentenced former president Lenin Moreno to five years in prison for accepting bribes from China’s Sinohydro, the company that built the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric dam, Ecuador’s largest power infrastructure project. The ruling closes a corruption case that ensnared 20 defendants, among them Moreno’s wife and other family members.

At the heart of the case is money: prosecutors alleged that Sinohydro channeled 76 million dollars in bribes to officials overseeing the dam’s construction. That figure represents roughly four percent of the project’s total cost, a ratio that points to systematic rent-extraction embedded in the contract from the outset. The prosecution had sought a six-and-a-half-year term for Moreno, now 73 and a paraplegic who previously served as a United Nations special envoy on disability issues.

The alleged scheme unfolded between 2007 and 2013, when Moreno was vice-president under socialist president Rafael Correa. The Coca Codo Sinclair dam was a flagship infrastructure investment of that era, and Sinohydro’s involvement reflected a broader pattern: Chinese state-owned enterprises were financing and constructing large-scale hydroelectric and energy projects across Latin America throughout the 2000s and 2010s, often bundling financing with construction contracts in ways that concentrated risk and reward within tightly controlled relationships between foreign operators and host-country officials.

By contrast, the political landscape shifted sharply once Moreno assumed the presidency in 2017. He governed through 2021, moved rightward, and strengthened ties with the United States, while Correa drifted toward the political left. The two former allies became rivals, and that rupture now colors how each side frames the corruption allegations.

Moreno’s wife and other relatives received sentences of nearly three years for complicity. Two former managers of the power plant were also convicted in the broader case. The prosecution announced the verdicts via social media on Friday.

Moreno has signaled his intention to appeal. In remarks following the verdict, he maintained his innocence, insisting he had never received “a single cent” from Sinohydro and characterizing the prosecution as political retaliation orchestrated by Correa. Correa himself has been convicted of corruption but currently resides in Belgium.

The conviction carries direct implications for how Ecuador’s judiciary handles corruption claims tied to major infrastructure contracts and foreign corporate actors. The scale of the alleged bribery, measured against the project’s total cost, raises questions about due diligence and oversight mechanisms that were in place when the contracts were awarded and managed. Whether the appeal reshapes those findings, or whether other officials connected to the project face further scrutiny, will determine how far accountability ultimately reaches into the deal’s financial architecture.