Quito –
Colombian insurance businessman Felipe Moncaleano Botero was sentenced to six years in prison in Miami for participating in the bribery and money laundering program related to contracts of the Ecuadorian state-owned company Seguros Sucre between 2013 and 2017, in which Ecuadorians also participated. Juan Ribas Domenech and José Gómez Avilés.
The court decision was issued last week and Moncaleano must appear before authorities on April 26, 2021 to serve his sentence. In addition, the judge fined $ 50,000 dollars and approved a $ 3.1 million seizure order.
Moncaleano was in charge of JLT Re Colombia, a subsidiary of UK multinational Jardine Lloyd Thompson (acquired by Marsh & McLennan Companies in 2019) and confessed to US authorities that in order to keep the reinsurance contracts with Seguros Sucre he paid bribes to the then owner from the company Ribas Domenech, through the intermediary José Gómez and Roberto Heinert. One of the meetings in which the payments were agreed took place in Miami.
The amount of the bribes, he said in his confession, was $ 10.8 million and was related to the policies of the Ministry of Defense and hydroelectric power plants maintained by Seguros Sucre, as he had a monopoly on contracts in Rafael Correa’s government. to close with state institutions.
Ribas and Gómez are also being tried in separate cases in Florida, they have pleaded guilty and have not yet been sentenced. The judges following their cases have already approved the embargo orders. In Ribas’s case, that’s $ 5 million and Gomez’s $ 3.1 million.
The bribe money was deposited in Switzerland and then reinvested in the Cayman Islands; another part was paid in cash and a third was laundered on the accounts held by Ribas and his relatives in the US. The payments started in 2014 and lasted until 2016, according to confessions of those involved. Gómez Avilés also pointed out that a second Seguros Sucre official has also received bribes, but US prosecutors have not disclosed this person’s identity.
Ribas began working with the Correa administration as a presidential advisor and later he was appointed chairman of the board of the state-owned company Seguros Sucre. Gómez Avilés was an insurance broker and owned several businesses in Miami in partnership with Roberto Heinert Musello.
In Ecuador, the former manager of Seguros Sucre, José Luis Romo-Rosales Castillo and his wife Verónica Haro are being tried. The prosecution has charged them with alleged money laundering and the case is being heard in the multi-competent court of Samborondón. (I)