Former Ecuadorian president and son sentenced for organized crime linked to illegal COVID-19 test sales

Ecuadorian judges convicted former president Abdala Bucaram and his son Jacobo, imposing prison terms of nine years and four months for organized crime related to the illicit sale of COVID-19 diagnostic tests and other medical equipment in 2020. The court also sentenced former Metropolitan Traffic Agency officer Leandro Berrones to 13 years and four months, and Israeli national Sheinman Oren to two years and eight months after he assisted the prosecution.

The defendants were found to have collaborated with a criminal network that profited from distributing the tests during the state of emergency. In addition to imprisonment, the Bucarams were ordered to pay a monetary fine, and the former president was taken into custody after being released from a hospital in Guayaquil. The case highlights ongoing corruption investigations involving high-level figures in Ecuador.