Ecuador: The scandalous case that affects Lenín Moreno and for which the Prosecutor’s Office carries out raids

The State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) of Ecuador carried out raids on several buildings in Quito and Guayaquil this Friday, as part of the investigations into the ‘Ina Papers’ case, which has been linked to former Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno and an ‘offshore’ company ‘.

The raids, which were carried out together with agents of the National Police, were carried out in several companies where documents and electronic equipment that would contain accounting information were seized, and whose existence was previously denied to the FGE and will now be subjected to analysis, reported the institution, informed RT.

The FGE explained that in this case «an alleged crime of bribery» is being investigated, which would have been committed between 2010 and 2018. This occurs while Moreno is in Paraguay after being appointed by Luis Almagro as «Commissioner of the OAS Secretary General for Disability Affairs».

The ‘Ina Papers’ case was opened in 2019, when Moreno was still president, after an article titled ‘The offshore labyrinth of the presidential circle’ was published in February of that year.

The case was baptized by the media as ‘INA Papers’, because it involves an ‘offshore’ company called INA Investment Corporation, with which several assets were acquired and the corruption plot was developed.

The case involves family and friends of the former president. In fact, the name of the ‘offshore’ company has been associated with the names of Moreno’s daughters: Irina, Cristina and Carina.

In addition to Ecuador, the plot was denounced in Panama, Spain and Switzerland, places where transactions were made through the company.

About the company and the plot in Ecuador

Assemblyman Ronny Aleaga, who has pushed the cause, told RT in July 2019 that INA Investment Corporation was established in 2012 in Belize by Edwin Moreno, brother of the former president, when he was in the position of vice president (2007-2013).

In 2016, a similar company was created in Panama and later registered in Spain. Other members of the presidential family were linked to these companies, in addition to Edwin Moreno, as well as friends Xavier Macías Carmigniani, her wife María Auxiliadora Patiño Herdoiza and her father, Conto Patiño.

Conto Patiño was a lobbyist and contractor for Sinohydro in Ecuador, a Chinese company in charge of building a hydroelectric plant, to which Moreno, as vice president, allegedly facilitated the concession. But, in addition, he would be the legal representative of another ‘offshore’ company called Recorsa, a position from which he would have received 18 million dollars from the Chinese firm, and from which he allegedly transferred money to more than 10 shell companies in Panama, including INA Investment Corp.

Between 2012 and 2016, INA Investment Corporation managed accounts at the Balboa Bank of Panama, from which they acquired expensive furniture, carpets and other luxury items for Moreno’s apartment in Geneva (Switzerland), when he was serving as a special envoy of the Secretary UN General for Persons with Disabilities.

Also, from the same account, transfers were made for the purchase of an apartment of 140 square meters in Alicante (Spain), with a view to the Mediterranean.

Moreno has always denied the accusations. In April 2019 he said: «I never knew that this ‘offshore’ company (INA Investment Corporation) had been formed».