A court in Ecuador has convicted a first cousin of President Rafael Correa in the embezzlement of USD 800,000 from a state-run lender while he ran the country's central bank.
The three-judge tribunal convicted Pedro Delgado in a decision announced Monday. Correa's judicial secretary said Ecuador would seek the extradition of Delgado, who was believed living in Miami.
Correa named Delgado central bank director in November 2011. A month later, the state-owned Cofiec bank granted a fraudulent USD 800,000 loan to Gaston Duzac, an Argentine associate of Delgado.
Also convicted and still at large are Duzac and the bank's then-president, an in-law of Delgado. All face up to eight years in prison.
Delgado resigned as central bank president in late 2012 after journalists discovered that he falsified his university degree.
