QUITO, Ecuador: An Ecuador court sentenced former president Lenin Moreno to five years in prison on Friday, August 28, 2026, for accepting bribes from a China company that built the country’s largest hydroelectric dam.
The prosecution stated on X that Moreno, who governed from 2017 to 2021, was among 20 people convicted in the case involving the construction of the Coca Codo Sinclair dam by Sinohydro. Okay News reports that Moreno received the five-year sentence after prosecutors established that Sinohydro paid bribes totaling $76 million, representing around four percent of the cost of the hydroelectric project.
Moreno served as vice-president under socialist president Rafael Correa between 2007 and 2013 when the alleged corruption occurred. He later succeeded Correa with his backing before shifting to the political right and aligning more closely with the United States. Prosecutors had sought a six-and-a-half-year prison term for Moreno.
The court also sentenced Moreno’s wife and other relatives to nearly three years in prison for complicity. Following the ruling, the 73-year-old paraplegic, who served as the United Nations special envoy on disability issues, said he had never received “a single cent” from Sinohydro. He blamed the case on “the Correa regime,” saying his former backer-turned-rival “promised to take revenge on me.”
Moreno announced plans to appeal the court ruling, while Correa lives in Belgium after also being convicted of corruption. Among those convicted alongside Moreno were two former managers of the power plant.
