US authorities recently sentenced Armengol Alfonso Cevallos Diaz, a Miami-based Ecuadorian businessman, to 35 months in prison for his involvement in a $4.4 million bribery and money laundering scheme. This scheme involved giving bribes to then-public officials of Ecuador’s state-owned and state-controlled oil company PetroEcuador.
During 2012-15, Diaz conspired to solicit, intermediate and pay bribes of $4.4 million from an oil services company and other companies to PetroEcuador officials via US-based companies and bank accounts. The purpose behind this bribing was to gain and retain business from PetroEcuador. Diaz also conspired to continue and conceal the bribe scheme by laundering the proceeds. He laundered the funds through Miami-based shell companies and bank accounts.
This investigation into PetroEcuador-related bribery and money laundering scheme is ongoing. Diaz is merely the latest person that the US Department of Justice has sentenced in the matter. The former PetroEcuador officials who took and hid the bribes as well as the people who paid the bribes have also been sentenced, among others.
Source: US Department of Justice