DOJ Obtains Guilty Verdict in Haitian Money Laundering and FCPA Case

FCPA Anti-Money Laundering

On March 12, the Department of Justice announced a guilty verdict in the case of a foreign official accused of laundering bribes paid to him by two Miami-based telecommunications companies. Following a week-long trial, the jury convicted the former director of Haiti’s state-owned telecommunications company on all counts, including nineteen counts of money laundering and two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The laundered funds were alleged to be proceeds of bribes paid by U.S. companies to the defendant to obtain a preference in telecommunications rates and other favorable treatment in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The jury found that the defendant concealed the payments through subsequent transactions and by falsely characterizing the nature of the payments as “commissions” and “payroll.”