The Attorney General’s Office hopes that the criminal court, which sentenced Rafael Correa and others, responds to the request to seize the assets.
The total amount of reparations, economic penalties, fines and other types of criminal sanctions in cases involving former Correista officials reaches $108 million. Of that number, the Ecuadorian justice has barely been able to recover 2.4 million; that is, 2.2%.
Over the years, those sentenced are recovering their freedom, despite the fact that they have not honored the pecuniary sanctions. It is the case of Alecksey Mosquera, former Minister of Electricity, who has already agreed to pre-release and has requested through a judicial document that the judges allow him to deliver a sedan vehicle used and his knowledge to pay the $666,000 for comprehensive repair. The car is part of a survey to know its appraisal.
Mosquera, who was a minister in 2008, admitted having received $1 million from a foreign company linked to the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht; however, he denied that it was a bribe. During the investigations, the Prosecutor’s Office demonstrated that the money was in accounts in tax havens and was used to buy machinery, who years later arrived in Ecuador, to family companies.
In 2018 he was sentenced to five years in prison, but he agreed to pre-release in July 2020. Today he says he has no way to cancel the $666,000 that a court ordered him to pay, after being found guilty of money laundering.
free without pay
Four of the eight sentenced in the corruption scheme Odebrecht have already been released, two more died from Covid-19, according to their lawyers. In this last group is Jorge Glas’s uncle, Ricardo Rivera, who died on Saturday.
A seventh defendant has house arrest and only the former vice president Jorge Glas still behind bars. None have paid their share of the compensation to the State for $33.4 million.
In another case, Laura Terán is one of the 20 people sentenced for bribery in the 2012-2016 Bribery case. He served seven months in prison and now works as a secretary in the private sector, with a salary that around $400. She was tried as an accessory and is still pending payment of $368,632. His lawyer said that he cannot cancel this obligation. The court ordered all those sentenced to pay $14.7 million. And barely $1.9 million has been recovered.
Authorities waiting for the judges
The Attorney General’s Office seized in November 2021 the money from the accounts of all those processed. What’s more, LA HORA learned that the entity has already asked the enforcement court, presided over by Judge Wálter Macías, who “order the seizure of the movable and immovable property belonging to the sentenced but this request had not been answered until Friday, January 14, 2022.
The Asset Recovery Unit, which belongs to the Attorney General’s Office, has 10 open processes of Correismo in which it seeks to recover some of the money stolen from the state coffers (see infographic). The most advanced are IESS, in which the former general coordinator of that institution, María Sol Larrea (already released) was sentenced.; the Petroecuador case, in which Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli was sentenced; and the Bribery case. Those three are in the last of the four stages of recovery: which is the attachment and retention of assets.
Another six cases are in the third stage: execution; and only one, the process for embezzlement against the former Minister of Sport, Raúl Carrión, is in the second phase: execution request. The Attorney General’s Office informed that all the files have already passed the first step that refers to the investigation.
The authorities point to land, houses and household items
In May 2021, the State took possession of three buildings that belonged to Álex Bravo, former manager of Petroecuador, sentenced for the crime of bribery within the corruption plot in the state oil company. Properties valued at $240,000. Two months later, in July 2021, the seizure of $430,000 in jewelry and other property belonging to María Sol Larrea was achieved, former coordinator of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS), sentenced for illicit enrichment.
The road to recover the stolen money is long, indicates the criminal lawyer and professor Pablo Whitewashed. After exhausting all instances of a trial (judgment, appeal, cassation) a new process is initiated to collect economic reparations.
Options to pay for the stolen
The sentenced have two options: pay in cash or give up assets, that is, deliver your vehicles, houses, land or assets to justice so that they can be sold and with that money discount the debt with the State. In the event that the defendants do not have the money or assets to cover the amounts, they will be declared insolvent and the State will have to consider the money lost. There, those fined will not be able to contract, start a business or open a bank account.
Government refines anti-corruption mechanism
The Government adviser for the fight against corruption, Luis Verdesoto, reported that “task groups” will be created to detect early warnings of corruption in the 10 most sensitive areas.
These units will be made up of a presidential delegate, an international expert in the area, a national expert and a lawyer. Special emphasis will be placed on the oil, mining, telecommunications, electricity and public works areas.
With the creation of these groups, the aim is to file complaints againstbefore the Prosecutor’s Office in specific cases and, also, make changes in public policy to prevent new acts of corruption. This action will be presented as part of the anti-corruption strategy, next April.
