John Christopher Polit, a former Merrill Lynch broker, pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges related to helping his father, a convicted ex-Ecuadorian official, launder millions of dollars in foreign bribes through the Miami-area’s banking system and real estate market, according to a report this week in the Miami Herald.
The son was charged five months after his father, Ecuador’s ex-comptroller Carlos Ramon Polit, was found guilty in the money-laundering conspiracy in April, according to the Herald.
Carlos Polit, 73, was sentenced in October to 10 years in federal prison.
John Polit, 43, was registered with Merril Lynch from 2012 to 2018, according to his BrokerCheck report. Bank of America and Merrill were not accused of any wrongdoing in the matter.
A Merrill spokesperson declined to comment.
According to the Herald, John Polit admitted in a factual statement with his plea agreement that he washed more than $16 million in bribery payments to his father while he was serving as a senior official in Ecuador.
Between 2010 and 2018, the son conspired with the father by making the proceeds of Carlos Polit’s bribery schemes “disappear” through investments in a Coral Gables home, a Miami office building, restaurants, a dry cleaner, and other businesses, according to the Herlad’s report.
John Polit also created shell companies in Florida to hold these assets and “conceal” them for the benefit of the Polits and their relatives, according to the factual statement.
The son surrendered to federal authorities in September, when he was granted a $14 million personal surety bond secured with his family’s assets.
John Polit now faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit money laundering, but he is expected to receive incarceration in the six-year range at a hearing set for Jan. 30 before US District Judge Kathleen Williams, according to the Herald.
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