Lived in swanky Miami River condo

Polit, who after his arrest in March 2022 was released on an $18 million bond and lived in a condo high-rise along the Miami River, wielded tremendous sway over Odebrecht when he became Ecuador’s comptroller in 2010. The Brazilian firm was found to have committed contractual and technical violations on the $320 million power-plant project built near an active volcano in central Ecuador called Minas de San Francisco, according to prosecutors.

Polit’s position, which was created to combat the fraudulent use of government funds, required him to sign off on public budgets that prosecutors say enabled him to demand more than $10 million in bribery payments from Odebrecht. In exchange, prosecutors contend, Polit made the government fines go away and allowed the engineering firm to continue working in Ecuador.

“The defendant was a high-ranking official in Ecuador whose position required him to protect public funds,” said Justice Department prosecutor Jill Simon, who worked on the case with colleagues Michael Berger and Kramer.

“Instead of just doing his job, the defendant abused his position of tremendous power and he took bribes,” Simon said. “The defendant was supposed to prevent corruption. Instead, he profited from it.”

The case, probed by Homeland Security Investigations, was built upon an electronic trail of financial records, cooperating witnesses and recordings.

Ex-Odebrecht executive admits to paying bribes

Jose Santos, who worked as an engineering and construction executive at Odebrecht for 38 years, testified that he was asked to resolve the company’s huge fines with the Ecuadorian government over the power-plant fiasco and then found himself being extorted by Polit in 2010.

Santos said Polit offered Odebrecht an ultimatum: Pay the comptroller an initial $6 million bribe to make the fines disappear or never work in Ecuador again.

Asked by a prosecutor if he paid Polit a series of cash bribes, Santos testified: “Yes, I did.”

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