Relatives of Daniel Noboa, the centre-right surprise frontrunner in Ecuador’s election, are engaged in a messy court battle over the family bananas-to-banking conglomerate that has raised concerns over potential conflicts of interest should he win the presidency.
Noboa is the 35-year-old heir to the fortune of one of Ecuador’s richest men, banana magnate Álvaro Noboa, who controls a series of companies including the Bonita brand of bananas, a coffee exporter and financial services companies.
Daniel, his son, is not a party to the legal cases but has accused a group of his relatives, who are pitched against his father’s companies in court, of seeking to use the cases to interfere in the elections.
A run-off vote will be held on October 15, while an attempt by a group of family members to claim payments in the case may return to Ecuador’s courts in a test of Daniel’s independence should he win the presidency.
Álvaro, his father, is at odds with other family members in a boardroom battle that has moved to a London court. The dispute dates back more than a decade to a fight for control of the family business in which Álvaro in 2010 emerged victorious and agreed to buy out the interests of other family members.
Those family members have since lodged legal cases against Álvaro’s companies in the Bahamas and Ecuador, alleging they were never paid under the 2010 agreement. Since a fresh set of settlements in 2021, the relatives have been pursuing payments from the tycoon’s companies and have also sought to have Fruit Shippers Limited (FSL), a Bahamas-incorporated company that is the holding group for Bonita bananas, wound up on the grounds that it is insolvent.
Álvaro’s companies, are meanwhile seeking an injunction against the relatives in London’s High Court, aiming to prevent the group from launching further claims.
Speaking for the group of relatives in a September witness statement, Luis Noboa — Álvaro’s nephew and Daniel’s cousin — wrote: “They owe us more than $10m from when we sold FSL our shares in 2010 along with inheritance rights . . . It is our belief that FSL is insolvent and is attempting to avoid discovery of financial records relevant to this dispute as they will show that FSL is actually insolvent.”
Álvaro’s companies have also struck back in a related case. FSL has opened a case in New Zealand against Luis Noboa alleging that he received improper payments while working for another standalone company within the Noboa group. Luis denies that claim.
The High Court in London is weighing which court process to adopt: either a narrow case — as requested by FSL to rule on the family members winding up the company — or a wider case favoured by the family, that would finally settle the amount and timetable for payments they say are outstanding for their stake.
“I think that [the group of family members] are using [the litigation] to intervene in and affect the election in Ecuador,” Noboa said in a text message to the Financial Times in response to written questions.
Neither Noboa nor his spokesperson responded to questions on whether the family business would present a conflict of interest should he be elected.
“My recommendation is that you do not pay attention to election interference when the other side may have been ‘grey’ financed,” Daniel Noboa added, without providing any more details on that claim.
A lawyer for the group of family members said: “The outstanding debts owed by FSL emanate from promissory notes issued in 2010, long before Daniel Noboa entered the Presidential race. The steps taken to put FSL into insolvency and the election are therefore unrelated.”
Michelle Duncan, a lawyer for Alvaro’s company FSL, did not respond to a request for comment.
Noboa was little-known in Ecuador until the first round of voting in August, when he upset pollsters’ predictions to place second, behind leftist Luisa González.
The Harvard-educated businessman worked for the Noboa Corporation as commercial director, shipping director and logistics director, until 2021, when he left the company after being elected as a lawmaker.
Analysts credit Noboa’s breakout performance in the first round of voting to an assured performance in a debate, a focus on job creation and youth employment, and a reluctance to attack González for her proximity to socialist former president Rafael Correa, who is living in Belgium to avoid a corruption conviction.
Since the first round, Daniel Noboa has consistently led in the polls, with local pollster Comunicaliza on Thursday predicting that he would secure 53.3 per cent of the vote, against 46.7 per cent for González.
Market-friendly Noboa is viewed by investors as a safer bet than González, who if elected is expected to continue with the leftist economic policies of Correa. His campaign is more than half self-funded, according to filings made to electoral authorities, alongside funds from other Ecuadorean businesspeople.
Lawyers and analysts say the ongoing legal case may test Noboa’s belief in the separation of powers, should he win office. If the family creditors succeed in London, enforcement of the judgment is likely to end up in Ecuador as part of the pursuit of the family companies for available assets.
If that were to happen, it would test Noboa’s willingness as president to refrain from interfering in an Ecuadorean court process that could risk him losing his inheritance or seeing his father’s business liquidated.
“Without a doubt there [would be] conflicts of interest,” said Sebastián Hurtado, who runs Profitas, a Quito-based political risk consultancy.
“There would be conflicts of interest for any businessman elected in Ecuador, but even more so for a businessman with such a wide rage of economic interests that spread across multiple sectors.”
Outgoing president Guillermo Lasso, a self-made banking millionaire, faced allegations of conflicts of interest throughout his truncated term in office. His attempts at financial sector reform were thwarted by the opposition-controlled congress, where lawmakers alleged he was acting out of self-interest.
Lasso triggered snap elections in May when, facing impeachment charges, he used a clause in Ecuador’s constitution known as “mutual death” to close congress. The new congress and president will serve the remainder of the current term, until 2025.
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