Saturday, March 10, 2012

ARTICLE - EX-OFFICIAL KILLED - BRIBERY PROBE

EX-OFFICIAL SLAIN IN HAITI AFTER HIS SON HELPS MIAMI FEDS IN ARISTIDE BRIBERY PROBE
(Miami Herald) - By Jay Weaver

A former Haitian-government official during Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s administration was killed by gunmen — days after The Miami Herald reported that the man’s son is cooperating with prosecutors.

The father of a former Haitian official who has implicated ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in a U.S. bribery probe was fatally shot in the mouth in the capital of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s national police said Wednesday.

Venel Joseph, the former governor of Haiti’s Central Bank during the Aristide administration from 2001-04, was killed by gunmen Tuesday evening while in a vehicle with another man. He was the father of Patrick Joseph, former director general of the state-owned telecommunications company, Haiti Teleco.

The shooting occurred two days after The Miami Herald reported that Patrick Joseph, 50, had cut a cooperation deal with the Justice Department in a bribery investigation of former Haiti Teleco officials and Miami-based companies. The Miami firms are suspected of paying bribes to executives of Teleco to secure lower long-distance phone rates.

Patrick Joseph pleaded guilty last month to a money-laundering conspiracy charge as part of his cooperation deal, agreeing to testify about millions of dollars in alleged bribes he shared with Aristide and other senior officials, according to legal sources familiar with the probe.

The killing of Joseph’s father in a car by two gunmen on motorcycles sparked rumors in the Haitian media and blogosphere about who wanted him dead — and why.

Witnesses told the Haitian National Police that Joseph, who was in his 80s, and another man were in a van when the gunmen opened fire in downtown Port-au-Prince, according to published media reports. Police expressed caution, saying they didn’t know if the shooting was a random act of violence or if the two were targeted.

“Regardless of who is responsible for this tragedy, a message has been sent,” said Miami attorney David Weinstein, former chief of the narcotics section at the U.S. attorney’s office.

“As a result, in order to ensure this witness’s safety ... law enforcement will now have to enhance the protection of their witness,” he said.

The Justice Department declined to comment about the shooting, which happened as Miami federal prosecutors are trying another former senior Haitian official, Jean René Duperval, on money-laundering charges in connection with the Haiti Teleco case.

Patrick Joseph’s lawyer, Richard Dansoh of Miami, declined to comment.

Aristide’s Miami lawyer, Ira Kurzban, also declined to comment because the ex-president has not been charged with any crime. On Saturday, he told The Herald: “I view this [investigation] as part of the same smear campaign that the United States has orchestrated against Aristide since he was first elected in 1990.”

Aristide, forced out of office in February 2004, lived in exile in South Africa until he returned to Haiti last year.

Since the first Haiti Teleco indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in 2009, a dozen South Florida business people and Haitian officials have been charged in the high-profile case, alleging the payment of kickbacks in exchange for discounted long-distance phone rates.

Profits from those lower rates were pocketed by the Haitian officials, not the government’s phone company. So far, seven of those defendants — including Patrick Joseph — have been convicted of corruption or money laundering.

Joseph, who served as Aristide’s director general of Haiti Teleco from March 2001 to June 2003, is a crucial witness in the investigation of Aristide, according to sources familiar with the case.

Joseph has told U.S. authorities that he shared some kickbacks with the former president, the sources said. Joseph’s father, slaying victim Venel Joseph, was the governor of the Bank of Haiti, the central bank, during that period and is referenced in the indictment as “Official A.” He was appointed by Aristide.

The central bank owned Haiti Teleco and was used to distribute the kickbacks paid by the Miami businesses, the indictment says.

Aristide is not identified by name in the latest version of the indictment. But defense attorneys say “Official B” referenced in the corruption- and money-laundering indictment is indeed the ex-president.

According to the indictment, Official B and senior officials of Haiti Teleco allegedly received payments totaling about $2.3 million from Miami businesses Cinergy Telecommunications and Uniplex Telecom Technologies. The businesses are accused of using “shell” companies to kick back the money to those officials.

The indictment alleges that the bribes were passed to Aristide via “Company A,” a reference to Digitek, a suspected front owned by Aristide’s brother-in-law, who lives in Coral Springs.

No comments: