Former Comptroller General Carlos Pólit was arrested on March 28 in Miami, United States, within a federal process for the crime of money laundering after allegedly demanding the payment of $ 8 million in bribes to vanish fines against the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, reported The New Herald.
The information was confirmed, without further details, by the Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office through its Twitter account. “The former comptroller Carlos P. was arrested in the United States of America – according to information from the Department of Justice of that country (@USDOJ_intl)– and will be prosecuted in the district of #Floridafor the crime of money laundering,” he tweeted.
#URGENT | Former comptroller Carlos P. was arrested in the United States of America –according to information from the Department of Justice of that country (@USDOJ_intl)– and will be prosecuted in the district of #Floridafor the crime of money laundering (in development). pic.twitter.com/BCy3vOM61w
– Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office (@FiscaliaEcuador) March 29, 2022
According to the media, Pólit appeared this morning, by video, before a federal judge in Miami. He is currently in a federal detention center.
The newspaper notes that between 2010 and 2013 the former Ecuadorian official “solicited and received bribe payments from a co-conspirator in exchange for using his position and influence to protect the Brazilian firm from being fined.”
According to the note, prosecutors Michael Berger and Alex Kramer They said they aim to “keep Pólit behind bars during his trial” but indicated they might be open to the possibility of him being granted bail.
Quoted by The New Heraldthe former official’s defense attorney, Fernando Tamayo, told Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Becerra that the parties were working on a bail package that may be acceptable to the Prosecutor’s Office.
This Friday, April 1, a hearing will be held to elucidate this issue. The reading of the charges against Pólit is still pending, reported The New Herald.
In Ecuador, Polit has a call to judgment pending within of the Odebrecht illicit association case, in which former Vice President Jorge Glas was already sentenced.
What’s more He has a six-year prison sentence for being the author of the crime of concussion. This for demanding money in exchange for the fading of glosses from the Brazilian company Odebrecht.
In this case, his son John C. Pólit was also initially sentenced, but his innocence was confirmed on appeal. Only Pólit Sr. was sentenced.
The concussion case is already with a final sentence and in the execution phase.
The publication of the American media indicated that Pólit was at the center of a journalistic investigation carried out by The Miami Herald along with other media, which found that his family was linked to three expensive properties in South Florida purchased through limited liability companies that don’t reveal much about their owners.
“Public records indicate that the properties, purchased for a total of $7 million, were in the name of companies created in Florida and that they were purchased directly, without making use of mortgage loans, which allowed the identity of the owner to be hidden,” publish the journal.
He adds: “But the properties were subsequently mortgaged and McClatchy and the Miami Herald They managed to establish that they were in the name of John C. Pólit, son of the former comptroller, who was also sentenced in Ecuador as an accomplice in his father’s crimes. The two were convicted in Ecuador of concealing money extorted from Odebrecht, a Brazilian engineering conglomerate whose recognition of bribery has rocked Brazil, Ecuador and other Latin American countries.”
The note also refers that “the limited liability companies in Florida do not have to identify their true owners, and those linked to the Pólit properties have had a large number of directors and managers, mostly Ecuadorians who live in Miami, which obscures the identification of the owners in public records.” (I)