Ex-Ecuador official found guilty of laundering millions in Odebrecht bribes in Miami

At first, Santos delivered the cash in a carry-on bag to Polit at his apartment in Quito, and then he arranged for wire transfers and indirect payments by one of Odebrecht’s subcontractors in Ecuador.

Santos also acknowledged that he pleaded guilty in Brazil in 2016 to the Polit-related bribery charges and was sentenced to more than two years of house arrest and community service along with a fine. But he said he had not begun the sentence.

As part of the indictment, prosecutors also accused Polit of a separate conspiracy involving his acceptance of $510,000 in bribery payments from an insurance executive who lost his Ecuadorian government contracts to a rival businessman. After the payments were made, Polit restored his business dealings with the government, prosecutors said. Some of that money was also transferred to Miami, prosecutors said.

Wanted in Ecuador

Polit also faces an extradition request by Ecuador, where he was tried and convicted in absentia because he had left for Miami the year before the 2018 trial in his native country. His son, John, who also worked as a securities broker in Miami, was convicted in Ecuador of being an accomplice in connection with his father’s case. But the son’s conviction in Ecuador was later overturned.

Five years ago, McClatchy-Miami Herald and other news media collaborated on an investigative project that zeroed in on Odebrecht’s parallel off-books accounting system. Leaked documents showed links between Polit’s Miami-based son and a U.S. shell company, Ventures Overseas LLC, which became a pass-through for Odebrecht’s bribery payments to the father.

The Polits were the focus of a McClatchy-Miami Herald investigation that showed the son had taken on mortgages on several pricey properties in the Miami area, including the luxurious home in Cocoplum that had earlier been purchased outright.

Venture Overseas was at the end of a chain of financial transfers between anonymous shell companies that began with one controlled by Odebrecht called Kleinfeld Services. Company officials have admitted Kleinfeld was one of several used in an off-books accounting system that was used to pay bribes in exchange for public works contracts.

During the Miami trial, the team of prosecutors highlighted all of these companies and connections, pointing out that the Odebrecht executive, Santos, asked Polit what he was doing with all the bribery cash payments.

Polit told Santos: “My son in Miami makes the money disappear.”