The Justice of Ecuador has opened a new investigation against former president Rafael Correa for alleged misappropriation of funds in the framework of the ‘Sucre’ case, a network of corruption around Alex Saab, alleged front man of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office has notified the former president of the opening of a new investigation against him, as confirmed by Correa himself in a message broadcast through his Twitter account.
“I have just been notified with a preliminary investigation of the Sucre case, one more cantinflada (there are already 48) paid by the Ecuadorian people,” he said. Thus, he has indicated that the Justice of Ecuador is “a circus.” “Members of the majority of the Assembly’s Audit Commission are part of the clowns,” he criticized.
The former president currently resides in Belgium despite having been sentenced to eight years in prison in Ecuador for his involvement in a bribery case, accusations that he has repeatedly denied.
The Control Commission of the Parliament of Ecuador has indicated in a report the existence of “fictitious exports” of the Global Fund company through the Unitary System of Regional Compensation (Sucre).
The system was adopted in 2009 and virtual trade was allowed between member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America-Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP). According to the president of the commission, Fernando Villavicencio, Sucre was an alternative to the dollar, but it would have been used to launder more than 2,000 million.
In this way, Saab would have used the compensation system of the ALBA countries to launder money through payment for fictitious exports between Ecuador and Venezuela, which would have allowed it to launder large amounts of money during the Correa government.
These exports were made with the alleged complicity of more than thirty high-ranking officials of the Government of the then president of Ecuador, according to several parliamentarians. The commission’s report on the corruption plot in question would have also been sent to prosecutors in the United States, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela.
Correa, on his part, continues to denounce a judicial persecution against him by “powerful groups” that seek to eliminate him from the Ecuadorian political sphere.
