Conviction of former comptroller Carlos Pólit in Miami trial showcased Ecuadorian corruption

A Miami jury found former Ecuador Comptroller Carlos Pólit guilty of all counts Tuesday, including charges on accepting and laundering millions of dollars in bribes from the giant Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht. The prosecution proved that Pólit transferred the money to a U.S. account managed by his son who invested it in real estate and other assets.

Former Ecuador Comptroller Carlos Pólit

A dozen jurors unanimously found the 73-year-old Pólit guilty of conspiring to commit money laundering and five related counts, carrying up to 20 years in prison. The jurors took six hours, starting Monday afternoon, to reach their guilty verdict before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams who must still determine a sentence.

Pólit, who immediately surrendered to prison authorities, will be held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami until a sentence is announced.

The two-week corruption trial not only showcased Polit’s corruption, but the massive amount of bribes that Odebrecht paid to Ecuadorian officials from 2011 to 2016. Among the names brought up during the trial was that of former president Rafael Correa, currently a fugitive from Ecuadorian justice in Belgium.

During the Correa government, Odebrecht won engineering and construction contracts on more than a dozen projects, including large hydroelectric power plants. Several former officials are serving prison sentences in Ecuador for accepting Odebrecht bribes while four others have been sentenced in absentia.

Among those convicted of accepting Odebrecht money is former vice president Jorge Glas, who’s capture in a raid two weeks ago on the Mexican embassy in Quito sparked an international controversy.

His lawyers argued that Pólit didn’t touch a single dollar of the alleged bribes that prosecutors say were laundered through local banks into Miami-area real estate purchases by his son, John Pólit, a banker who handled the transactions and could face charges of his own.

In 2016, Odebrecht admitted to a massive bribery scheme across the Americas and agreed to pay $2.6 billion in a record corruption settlement with the Justice Department. Pólit’s trial was a spin-off of the scandal, offering for the first time the prosecution of an Odebrecht-linked defendant on conspiracy and money laundering charges in the United States. Much of the corruption, prosecutors showed, occurred in Ecuador.

“He [Pólit] used his power to ensure he got his money,” Justice Department prosecutor Alexander Kramer told the jurors in closing arguments, explaining that Polit didn’t have to launder the money himself to be found guilty. “He was just as responsible as his son. When his son was hiding that money [in Miami] … that was Carlos Pólit breaking the law.”

John Pólit’s son was listed as “co-conspirator” in an indictment charging the father, who stood trial alone. It remains unclear whether he will be charged, but his name came up repeatedly in the bribery payment transfers through Panamanian and Miami banking accounts. The money moved through intermediary companies into nearly a dozen local real estate deals, including the purchase of a Miami office building and a luxury home in exclusive Cocoplum in Coral Gables.