15617: Dorvilus: Aristide & the Baninter scandal (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Arsene Dorvilus <arsenedorvilus@phayze.com>

Information is slow to come out about the relationship between President
Aristide, Ramon Baez Figueroa - the jailed head of Baininter - and Luis
Alvarez Renta - the Dominican ambassador to France who was recently fired
because of his involvement in the scandal.

Yet, it is known in Dominican and Haitian business circles that Luis
Alavarez Renta, as a personal friend to President Hipolito Mejia and a
number of big businessmen in the DR, was the "broker" of choice when these
businessmen wanted to to do business in Haiti. The formula was simple:
offer a small percentage of the equity to Aristide and to one or two key
people, like Minister of Finance Faubert Gustave or ambassador Guy
Alexandre ... and a deal will be struck. Once the initial terms of the deal
were agreed upon, it was then passed to Aristide's wife to make sure that
the legal arrangements would pass muster.

Grupo M's unprecedented deal to build a free-trade zone in the Maribahoux
plain in Haiti, when the Haitian government in its history had always
rejected all such proposals by Haitian business groups of any political
stripe, can also be attributed to Alvarez Renta's crafty dealings with
Aristide. While the leaders of the Haitian trade group ADIH (Marie-Claude
Bayard and Jean-Edouard Baker) initially opposed the deal, their mysterious
turnaround can only be explained by the cold, hard cash that Grupo M rained
on them. Corruption is not just in the public sector, folks!

Le Monde, one of the leading newspapers in France, revealed in its June 17
issue that the Quai d'Orsay (French Ministry of Foreign Affairs) delayed
granting Alavarez Renta his diplomatic accreditation because of the
difficulties in ascertaining the source of his wealth: private jets (which
were at Aristide's disposal), a yacht, etc. They also had issues with his
business dealings with a foreign head of state, i.e. Aristide.

Finally, be it known that President Aristide's trip to Monterrey, Mexico
was entirely financed by Rafael Baez Figueroa himself. There is probably
nothing wrong with that ... unless Aristide agreed to give Baez Figueroa
and his cronies something in return. Could that be possible?

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