Ecuador’s Ex-Comptroller General Busted for $10M Bribery, Money Laundering Scheme

A federal jury in Miami has convicted the former Comptroller General of Ecuador, Carlos Ramon Polit Faggioni, 73, for his role in a $10 million international bribery and money laundering scheme.

Polit, who served as the Comptroller General of Ecuador from 2005 to 2011, solicited and received over $10 million in bribe payments from Odebrecht S.A., a Brazil-based construction conglomerate, between 2010 and 2015. The bribes were paid in exchange for removing fines and not imposing fines on Odebrecht’s projects in Ecuador.

According to court documents, Polit also received a bribe from an Ecuadorian businessman in exchange for assisting the businessman with obtaining certain contracts with the state-owned insurance company of Ecuador in or around 2015. The scheme involved Polit causing proceeds of his bribery scheme to ‘disappear’ by using Florida companies registered in the names of friends and associates, often without their knowledge.

The conspirators also used funds from Polit’s bribery scheme to purchase and renovate real estate in Florida. “This verdict is a reminder of our office’s firm commitment to investigating and prosecuting corrupt foreign officials who bring their criminally obtained funds to South Florida to buy real estate,” said U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida.

Polit faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering, and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each count of engaging in transactions in criminally derived property. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Polit’s conviction comes after his former employer, Odebrecht S.A., pleaded guilty in December 2016 in the Eastern District of New York to conspiring to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with a broader scheme to pay nearly $800 million in bribes to public officials in 12 countries, including Ecuador.