Correa’s assets are registered in Ecuador for confiscation in a corruption case

The Attorney General of Ecuador (State Legal Defense) announced this Thursday that several properties of former authorities convicted in a corruption case have been registered as confiscation, including former President Rafael Correa, who has lived in Belgium since leaving power in 2017.

File photo of former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa.

The Attorney General’s Office reported that, within the framework of the execution of the so-called “Bribery 2012-2016” case, it informed the court that executes the sentence that several assets of the defendants, including Correa, have been legally registered in the name of the Ecuadorian State.

The measure also includes assets of the former legal secretary of the Presidency in Correa’s time (2007-2017) Alexis Mera and some former ministers such as Walter Solís, Vinicio Alvarado and Viviana Bonilla, as well as senior collaborators of his administration such as Christian Viteri, Bolívar Sanchez and Pedro Verduga.

The Attorney General’s Office noted that the registered assets are now the property of the Ecuadorian State, as stated in the lien certificates, after the execution of the sentence in the “Bribes” case.

In addition, the Attorney General ‘s Office indicated that it has asked the court of the case to order the immediate seizure of various movable and immovable property that it managed to identify and locate in other municipalities of the country and that have been registered in the name of the convicted.

The Attorney General’s Office, in its brief, stated that “it will not cease in its task so that those sentenced for corruption cases comply with the provisions of the judges and restitute the damage caused to the country, thus guaranteeing the effectiveness of the administration of justice”.

In November of last year, the Attorney General’s Office already announced the seizure of bank accounts of several sentenced in the “Bribery” case, which included those of Correa and whoever was his vice president, Jorge Glas, in prison since 2017.

This case arose after a journalistic investigation into an irregular financing scheme for Correa’s political movement, which the former president has denied and which, rather, he considers part of an alleged judicial and political persecution against him by powerful groups opposed to your government.

In this case, a Criminal Court of the National Court of Justice (CNJ) imposed a sentence of eight years in prison on the authors and co-authors, as well as the payment of global compensation to the State for 14.7 million dollars.