Ecuador ex-president Lenin Moreno jailed for Sinohydro bribes in dam deal

A court in Ecuador sentenced former president Lenin Moreno to five years for taking Sinohydro bribes. The verdict deepens the country's long list of corruption cases involving former heads of state.Image used for representational purposes onlyFormer Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison after a court found him guilty of accepting bribes from a Chinese company in return for helping it secure a contract to build a hydroelectric plant.Moreno, 73, was present when the verdict was read out. He has a physical disability that prevents him from walking and will serve the sentence under house arrest. The case relates to his time as vice president under Rafael Correa, and makes him the third former Ecuadorian president to be sentenced for corruption.The court found Moreno to be a direct participant in the bribery scheme. His wife and daughter, his two brothers and a brother-in-law were convicted as accomplices. His wife and daughter were each given 30-month prison terms.Prosecutors said a corruption network operated from 2008 to 2018 and collected bribes worth 4 per cent of the value of the project carried out by Sinohydro. They said the money was distributed through domestic and international transactions to public officials and other beneficiaries, including Moreno. Sinohydro started building the roughly USD 2 billion Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant in 2010 and handed it over to Ecuador in 2016. The project has since faced criticism over structural defects.Moreno, a tourism entrepreneur, rose to national prominence in 2007 when he became vice president under Correa, who governed Ecuador for a decade. Moreno served until 2013, when Jorge Glas succeeded him. In 2017, Moreno won the presidency as a candidate of the Correista movement founded around Correa, with Glas as his running mate. Glas later left office and is now serving a prison sentence for corruption. Correa was sentenced in 2020 to eight years in prison in a bribery case involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, but remains in Belgium, where he has lived for years. Former President Jamil Mahuad was also sentenced in 2014 to eight years for misuse of public funds, while another former president, Abdala Bucaram, is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of organised crime. Moreno's sentencing on Friday adds to that list and closes a case tied to alleged bribery during his years in government before he became president.With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Aug 29, 2026 09:00 IST