Ex- Ecuador Vice President, Jorge Glas bags fresh eight-year jail term for misuse of public funds

A court in Ecuador has sentenced a former vice president, already serving a jail term, to fresh eight years in prison for misuse of public funds related to the awarding of an oil contract. 

 The court said it had found Jorge Glas guilty of the crime of embezzlement, along with two former energy ministers among the co-perpetrators. Glas is already serving a six-year term for having received millions of dollars in kickbacks as part of a corruption scandal.

 He was convicted of receiving $13.5 million in bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, and has been imprisoned in Latacunga, south of Quito, since 2017. 

 The 51-year-old served as the vice president under leftist Rafael Correa between 2013 and 2017, and under president Lenin Moreno until he was stripped of his office in 2018. In the current case, he is accused of having illicitly awarded an oil field contract in a scheme the prosecutor’s office said cost the country $28 million.