Borrowing countries keep prosecuting the officials who signed Chinese-financed infrastructure and resource deals a decade ago, so the legal and political cost of that lending rises and future project finance in the Global South shifts toward more transparent, and more expensive, terms.
forming · confidence 40 · Emerging (watchlist) · tracking since August 29, 2026 · updated August 29, 2026
An Ecuadorean court sentenced former president Lenin Moreno to five years over about $76 million routed through consulting contracts tied to Sinohydro's $2 billion Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant, and also sentenced China's former ambassador to Quito. Convicting a foreign ambassador alongside a former head of state extends the reckoning from domestic officials to the lender's own representatives, raising the diplomatic cost of Chinese project finance rather than just the borrower's.
Supporting · August 29, 2026
Ecuador Sentences Former President Lenin Moreno to Five Years Over Bribes From a Chinese Builder
An Ecuadorean court sentenced former president Lenin Moreno to five years over about $76 million routed through consulting contracts tied to Sinohydro's $2 billion Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant, and also sentenced China's former ambassador to Quito. Convicting a foreign ambassador alongside a former head of state extends the reckoning from domestic officials to the lender's own representatives, raising the diplomatic cost of Chinese project finance rather than just the borrower's.
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