Tucson Standard

WASHINGTON, DC – Representatives Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-07) and Jesús G. “Chuy” García (IL-04) sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Department of Justice to investigate the business dealings of Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso and his associates on U.S. soil. The letter was prompted by investigative reports in the Miami Herald and Plan V detailing new evidence linking Lasso to shell companies and tens of millions of dollars in Florida real estate properties. In April, Rep. Grijalva and several lawmakers called for an investigation into President Lasso for using U.S. jurisdictions to hide assets and avoid taxes, in apparent violation of Ecuadorian law.

Investigative journalists have uncovered a web of corruption that ties key associates of Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso to organized crime figures, including through the president’s brother-in-law and business associate Danilo Carrera.

The letter to Attorney General Garland reiterates the urgent request for: “a thorough investigation of President Lasso’s apparent holdings in the United States and potentially corrupt financial dealings in our country.”

An English version of the letter can be found here. A Spanish version of the letter can be found here. 

Amid an impeachment process against President Lasso, he dissolved the country’s National Assembly last month in a procedural maneuver called “mutual death,” forcing snap elections and halting the ongoing impeachment proceedings. Shortly after the new investigative reports broke on Friday and became the focus of discussion in Ecuadorian media outlets and on social media, Lasso announced that he would not be running for reelection in snap elections to be held August 20.

Background

On April 12, Reps. Grijalva, García and several members of Congress sent a letter to President Biden expressing concern regarding recent troubling developments in Ecuador, including credible allegations of high-level corruption, deadly political violence, attacks against Indigenous organizations and their leaders, and verbal threats and attacks against journalists by Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso. It also called on the Biden administration to consider reviewing its bilateral relations with the government of President Lasso.

In 2021, following Pandora Papers revelations that foreign entities and individuals are illegally hiding money from tax authorities in the U.S., enabling tax evasion, Rep. Grijalva published an oped in Newsweek urging that the United States should not tolerate unlawful tax dodging or allow the use of US jurisdictions for tax evasion purposes by people or entities in Ecuador, or anywhere else in the world.

Original source can be found here.