Former Ecuador President Lenín Moreno was sentenced to five years in prison over Chinese dam project bribes.
A top court in South America has sentenced the former president of Ecuador to 5 years in prison after judges found him guilty of taking secret money from a foreign company.
The court decision was handed down on Friday, August 28, 2026, in the capital city of Quito. Lenín Moreno, who led the country of Ecuador as president from 2017 to 2021, was punished for taking part in a bad deal when he worked as the country’s vice president years before he took the top job.
Because 73 year old Moreno has a physical condition that keeps him from walking, the court ruled that he will serve his five-year sentence inside his own home under house arrest instead of a regular jail building.
The main reason for this legal trial was a big bribe scheme tied to a huge water power station built in Ecuador. Government lawyers proved that a Chinese construction company called Sinohydro paid out millions of dollars in hidden gifts and money to top officers to get the contract to build the giant Coca Codo Sinclair power dam.
Prosecutors said the bad network took money equal to four percent of the whole project cost and shared it secretly among different people.
Court records showed that Lenín Moreno and his close family members received thousands of dollars from the deal. Along with Moreno, his wife, his daughter, his two brothers, and fifteen other people were also found guilty of helping in the bad act.
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The judge ordered all the people found guilty to pay back three times the amount of money they took wrongfully. The ruling also stops Moreno from holding any political or public position in the country ever again.
This major legal outcome makes Lenín Moreno the third former leader of Ecuador to be convicted for taking money illegally while in power.
Speaking to reporters after the judge read out the sentence, Lenín Moreno denied doing anything wrong and rejected the court outcome.
Strongly defending himself, Lenín Moreno insisted that he was innocent and stated he had never received “a single cent” from Sinohydro.
Pushing the blame onto his past political leader, Lenín Moreno added that the whole case was created by “the Correa regime,” claiming his former political partner “promised to take revenge on me”. Moreno’s lawyers are preparing to challenge the verdict in a higher court.
Jennifer Baba is a journalist, international news correspondent, and writer at Moderncrux, where she covers artificial intelligence, fintech, emerging technologies, global politics, and international affairs. Based in Nigeria, she is passionate about transforming complex global developments into clear, engaging stories that inform and inspire readers.
