Commission Calls for Ascendant’s Properties to Revert Back to the State
Yesterday (July 23), Ecuador’s Civic Anti Corruption Commission announced in a news release (PDF), that it had found evidence of illegalities concerning the transfer of ownership in 18 of Ascendant’s land titles in the Intag mining area (JUNIN mining project). The Commission is soliciting the Public Ministry to open an investigation into the case and asking the government to take back the land based on infractions to the law. DECOIN has in the past denounced the irregular land trafficking sparked by Ascendant´s agressive land purchasing. The Anti-Corruption Commision pointed out that the owners sold their land to Ascendant for 40-50 times the price they paid the INDA (Agrarian Development Institute). These lands, by law, are reserved strictly for agricultural uses.
The Commission is asking the nation’s Agricultural Ministry to head the investigations to assure the land reverts back to the nation.
