FORMER HAITIAN OFFICIAL TO APPEAL SENTENCE
(Wall Street Journal) - By Samuel Rubenfeld
Lawyers for a former Haitian official sentenced for his role in laundering bribes from Florida telecoms firms filed a notice late Friday reporting their intention to appeal his jail term.
Jean Rene Duperval, a former director of international relations for Haiti’s state-owned telecoms company, was sentenced in May to nine years in prison following a March conviction for 19 counts of money laundering and two counts of money laundering conspiracy. He was also ordered to forfeit nearly $500,000, the amount two Florida telecoms were accused of paying him through shell companies between 2003 and 2006.
John E. Bergendahl, the lawyer representing Duperval, on Friday filed his intention to appeal the sentence to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. He did not respond to requests for comment.
The case was part of a broader investigation into bribery by Floridian telecoms to Haitian government officials. Among those convicted in the broader investigation was Joel Esquenazi, the former president of one of the telecoms firms, who received the longest-ever sentence in U.S. history for violating its foreign bribery law. Esquenazi has also appealed his sentence to the 11th Circuit.
No comments:
Post a Comment