Ex-Miami banker and son of former Ecuadorian official pleads guilty in $16 million international scheme, says DOJ

MIAMI – A Miami man pleaded guilty Tuesday to his role in a multimillion-dollar international bribery and money laundering scheme involving his father, a former Ecuadorian government official.

The US Department of Justice said in a press release on Wednesday that John Christopher Polit, a 43-year-old former banker, laundered through the US the proceeds of bribes paid to his father Carlos Ramon Polit Faggioni, the former comptroller general of Ecuador. had been paid. financial system and in various investments in South Florida.

John pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and is expected to be sentenced on January 30, with a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. A federal district judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

According to federal court documents, Carlos Pilot solicited and received bribes from Odebrech SA. a Brazil-based construction conglomerate, in exchange for using its official position to divest the company and its operations in Ecuador and not impose fines. Additionally, in 2015, Carlos received bribes from an Ecuadorian businessman in exchange for assisting him and his company in connection with certain contracts of Ecuador’s state insurance company.

Between 2010 and 2018, John Pilot “helped his father launder these kickback proceeds” and then made the bribes “disappear” by stacking the transactions through Panamanian accounts of intermediary companies and using Florida companies registered on the name of certain employees, federal prosecutors said. .

Prosecutors added that John would then use the laundered money from his father’s scheme to “purchase and renovate real estate in South Florida and elsewhere and to purchase restaurants, a dry cleaners and other businesses.”

His father Carlos was sentenced to 10 years in prison on October 1 following his conviction in April. Meanwhile, in December 2016, Odebrecht SA pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with a broader scheme to pay nearly $800 million in bribes to government officials in 12 countries, including Ecuador.