Former Comptroller General of Ecuador Sentenced in International Bribery and Money Laundering Scheme

MIAMI – The former Comptroller General of Ecuador was sentenced today to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $16.5 million for his role in a multimillion-dollar international bribery and money laundering scheme in which he received over $10 million in bribes and laundered those bribes payments in South Florida.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between 2010 to 2015, Carlos Ramon Polit Faggioni, 73, solicited and received over $10 million in bribe payments from Odebrecht S.A., the Brazil-based construction conglomerate. Polit, in his position as Comptroller General of Ecuador, was responsible for protecting public funds against fraud and rooting out corruption. Instead, Polit took bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for removing fines and not imposing fines on Odebrecht’s projects in Ecuador. Additionally, in or around 2015, Polit 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. From in or around 2010 and continuing until at least 2017, at the direction of Polit, another member of the conspiracy caused proceeds of Polit’s bribery scheme to “disappear” by using Florida companies registered in the names of friends and associates, often without the associates’ knowledge. The conspirators also used funds from Polit’s bribery scheme to purchase and renovate real estate in Florida.

On April 23, Polit was convicted at trial of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, three counts of concealment money laundering, and two counts of engaging in transactions in criminally derived property.

Odebrecht S.A. pleaded guilty in December 2016 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.

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida; Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; and Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury of the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami Field Office made the announcement.

The HSI Miami Field Office investigated this case. IRS Criminal Investigation provided substantial assistance.

The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided substantial assistance. The Justice Department also thanks the assistance with the investigation of law enforcement authorities in Ecuador, Brazil, Panama, and Curacao.

Senior Litigation Counsel Michael N. Berger for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Jil Simon and Assistant Chief Alexander Kramer of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Grosnoff and Sandra Demirci for the Southern District of Florida are handling asset forfeiture.

The Fraud Section is responsible for investigating and prosecuting FCPA and Foreign Extortion Prevention Act matters. Additional information about the Justice Department’s FCPA enforcement efforts can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/fcpa.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-20114.

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