telecom - Haiti Observer Blog

Jean Rene Duperval a former Haitian telecom director was recently sentenced to a 9 year jail term for bribery charges. Duperval was the director of international relations for Haiti Telecom, the sole provider of land line telephone service in Haiti a company which was allowed to transact with foreign telephone companies to provide various telephone services across the countries. He was arrested with charges of having engaged in various questionable activities between the years 2003 and 2006 where evidence shows that he was actually engaging in money laundering schemes and hiding the fact with various ways developed to evade the long arm of law.

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Jean Rene Duperval, a senior telecommunications official in Haiti whom everyone highly thought of was found guilty on corruption charges of having received a bribe from two Miami based companies by the names Cinergy and Terra, in order to give them a lucrative long-distance phone contracts in the Caribbean nation. Evidence at his trial in March showed he took almost $500,000 in bribes. He was hired as Haiti Teleco's director of international relations by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2003, is the first Haitian government official to be convicted at trial by the Justice Department under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The law prohibits American businesses from paying bribes to foreign businesses and government officials.

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Attorneys representing a Haiti high-level official, Rene Duperval, convicted of money laundering in a kick-back scheme between Haiti Telco and two U.S. telecom companies, filed a motion Friday afternoon to appeal his sentence. The past Director of International Relations at Haiti received a nine-year prison sentence for charges related to money laundering (19 counts) and money laundering conspiracy (2 counts). Besides the convictions, the defendant was forced to deposit close to $500,000 in bribery money that he allegedly received from Terra and Cinergy in 2003 and 2006, into a court escrow account.

Rene Duperval's attorney, John E. Bergendahl, filed the motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, announcing his intention to appeal Duperval's prison term. When contacted by the news media, Bergendahl declined to comment.

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Antoine's testimony, as a government witness, has aided an extensive probe into the dealings between the Florida telecoms and high-level Haitian functionaries, which has implicated former Haitian president Jean-Bertand Aristide.

Asked about how the Court viewed Antoine's assistance up until now, Kainen said, "My client and his family have been reassured that the government is taking into account Mr. Antoine's generous assistance and cooperation, well before he pled guilty to money laundering. We are confident that the Court will reduce his sentence, since without his help the investigation would have faltered badly."

Eight defendants have been tried and sentenced, as an outcome of the investigation, most notably former telecom CEO Joel Esquenazi, who secured the longest-running prison term, in U.S. jurisprudence, in defiance of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

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