Congress members seek inquiry into the hidden Florida assets of Ecuadorian president

Two members of Congress are urging the Justice Department to investigate the assets in South Florida allegedly held by Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso and his brother, Danilo Carrera, arguing that the South American leader has built a “web of corruption” using shell companies.

The letter is the second of its kind asking the U.S. government to look into Lasso’s business dealings in the United States. On April 12, five members of the House of Representatives wrote to President Joe Biden asking him to make good on pledges made in Quito by State Secretary Antony Blinken claiming that one of the main U.S. priority regarding Ecuador is to address the challenge of corruption.

On Wednesday, representatives Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., and Jesús G. “Chuy” García, D-Ill. wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland insisting on the need to open an investigation on Lasso’s “potentially corrupt financial dealings in our country”.

“Researchers in the U.S. have uncovered how President Lasso used two figureheads associated with Banco Guayaquil, Euvenia Touriz and Miguel Macías, to open offshore companies in tax havens, including U.S. jurisdictions. Those companies then acquired millions of dollars in real estate in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, in Florida,” Grijalva and García said in the letter.

“It’s worth noting that in Ecuador it is illegal for any person holding assets in LLCs [limited liability corporations] that are not liable to pay U.S. federal taxes to hold public office,” they added.

In their letter, García and Grijalva highlighted recent media stories on Lasso, including revelations from investigations conducted into the so-called Pandora Papers showing that the president had allegedly been using US jurisdictions to evade taxes and hide assets, along with a recent Miami Herald article showing that a small Florida LLC had financed an expensive media campaign on his behalf.

Other investigations have shed light into the large real estate holdings linked to Lasso in South Florida.

In 2017, a report published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington-based think tank, revealed that a series of Florida shell companies allegedly connected to Lasso held ownership in more than 140 South Florida properties, most of them condos. Total value: more than $30 million.

Lasso’s lawyers have argued that there is no direct paper trail linking Lasso to this offshore network and the president has also refused to acknowledge any connection between himself and the real estate holdings.

Amid efforts to impeach him by the opposition-controlled Congress, Lasso invoked last month a constitutional provision known as “Mutual Death” that allowed him to dissolve the National Assembly while cutting his presidential term by about half, calling for immediate general elections, scheduled now for Aug. 20.

Despite denials of any links to the Florida shell companies, the fact that the $250,000 PR campaign in favor of Lasso in the United States was financed by one of them suggests otherwise, the representatives said in their letter.

“Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) filing documents at the Department of Justice reveal that the Ecuadorian government has employed a Florida-based wealth management firm to pay a lobbying firm in the United States to improve Lasso’s image in our country. This Florida-based company is Global Research and Asset Management LLC (GRAM), a shell company long suspected of being connected to Lasso,” they said in the letter.

GRAM’s CEO is Miguel Macías, Lasso’s associate at the offshore bank Banco Banisi in Panama, and one of the individuals associated with the purchase of Florida real estate through dozens of shell companies, they added

“It is for this reason that we wish to reiterate our urgent April 12 request for a thorough investigation of President Lasso’s apparent holdings in the United States and potentially corrupt financial dealings in our country,” the letter said.