Deal between Laurent Lamothe & Haiti Observateur

Leo Joseph, the owner of the Haiti Observateur Group has agreed to the dismissal of a lawsuit brought against them by the Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe and Patrice Baker, Lamothe's former business partner. The Haitian Prime Minister Lamothe and Baker sued the online paper in 2012 for publishing an article that alleged them for pressuring "Haitel", a bankrupt telecom company, to sell its assets below market price to an investment company named 'Nord Citadel' who was seeking investment opportunities in Haiti.

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The main allegation against Lamothe and Baker was that they forced Nord Citadel to make a down payment as full purchase price to buy the assets of Haitel for $25 million though its market value was somewhere around $80 million. The online paper published the story, as per their earlier declaration, on the basis of an interview with Michael Charles, the founder and managing partner of Nord Citadel.

In exchange of dismissal and under the penalty of false swearing, the online paper has agreed to publish an entirely different story that confirmed that the earlier story was fabricated to falsely allege Lamothe and Baker in charge of forceful compulsion. The source for writing the article was misrepresented. Michael Charles of Nord Citadel refuted Observateur's earlier claim and said he never met the Haitian Prime Minister neither the Prime Minister nor his former business partner were involved in any way in promoting the sell. Charles had never been in Haiti before. He had received a phone call from Haiti Observateur for a possible interview that never materialized.

In fact, there was no sale of assets ever happened to the bankrupt Haitel company. It will be placed in auction in the coming months. The District Court Judge John O'Sullivan approved an order of settlement between the parties on October 28, 2013. However, the terms of the settlement were not yet disclosed.

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Read more: Laurent Lamothe, Media, Haiti Observateur, Haiti Telecom, Newspaper, Haitel, Leo Joseph, Patrice Baker, Media

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