21189: HOlmstead: Re: 21091: (Arthur) U.S. court of appeals: watch those customs duties (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: John Holmstead <cyberkismet4@yahoo.com>

How soon we forget that it was Jesse Helms who opened
the contemporary cut-off of aid to the Haitian
government over this very issue. We'll probably learn
the truth about a great many things like this in the
future. Only if we keep watching and really care
beyond rhetoric or the headlines of the daily news.
BTW, the Corbett archives are a treasure trove of
overlooked facts and information pertinent to the
"current" situation. Viv Corbett!!

Subject: #2976: Customs dispute over rice halts U.S.
aid to Haiti (fwd)
*	From: Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>
*	Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 08:06:44 -0800 (PST)
*	Sender: owner-haiti@lists.webster.edu


From:nozier@tradewind.net

Published Thursday, March 23, 2000, in the Miami
Herald Customs dispute over rice halts U.S. aid to
Haiti____ BY DON BOHNING

What began Jan. 31 as a customs dispute over rice
shipped to Haiti for an American-owned Haitian company
has boiled over into a controversy that has halted the
little remaining direct U.S. aid to Haiti. The dispute
centers on Haitian government accusations that the
Rice Corporation of Haiti tried to smuggle rice into
Haiti. The government assessed a fine that the two
American owners say could cause the liquidation of the
company and loss of their estimated $5 million
investment. The company's processing plant on the
outskirts of Port-au-Prince, a downtown office and a
company home were taken over at gunpoint and sealed.
The ship carrying the rice, on charter to supplier
Archer Daniels Midland, was seized but finally allowed
to leave last week after the rice had been unloaded.
Although the rice-processing plant is back in
operation, it remains firmly under Haitian customs
supervision to ensure that the fine of about $1.4
million is exacted from sale and distribution of the
five million-ton plus shipment.

 OTHER CHARGES

 The American owners, Doug Murphy and Larry Theriot,
who deny charges of illegal activity, fled Haiti
across the Dominican Republic border Feb. 24 ahead of
warrants for their arrest that were first assumed to
be connected to the contraband charges. But Haitian
officials now say the arrest warrants and sealing of
some of the properties were linked to a separate and
unrelated ownership fight over the company that is
being played out in Haitian and Texas courts. ``These
two things unfortunately happened together, which make
it appear as if they were related but they are two
entirely separate issues,'' Miami attorney Ira
Kurzban, general counsel for the Haitian government,
said in a telephone interview from Haiti, where he has
been discussing the rice case with U.S. and Haitian
officials. Others see the timing of the two events as
more than coincidental, however.

 HOLD ON AID

In Washington, Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has put a hold
on any aid to the Haitian government and is asking the
State Department to deny U.S. visas for 10 Haitian
officials, including two Cabinet ministers and the
heads of Haitian police and customs. ``Under the guise
of a customs dispute, Haitian officials have run the
proprietors of the U.S.-owned Rice Corporation of
Haiti off their property at gunpoint,'' Helms said in
a letter to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
asking that the visas be denied. ``In spite of efforts
to negotiate a settlement, Haitian officials appear
determined to extort money from several U.S.
businessmen and confiscate their property,'' Helms
added.``I think Mr. Helms has been severely
misinformed in this case,'' Kurzban told The Herald.
Haiti has done nothing, he said, other than
``follow the normal procedures in smuggling cases. The
company has been fined, they have acknowledged their
guilt and entered into an agreement with the
government.'' ``We paid the duty but paid no fines,''
responded Theriot, the company's secretary treasurer,
in a telephone interview from Washington, where he has
been lobbying U.S. officials. ``We have not
acknowledged guilt and in fact are not guilty.'' The
U.S. government, meanwhile, has been walking a fine
line, trying to help resolve the customs controversy
and avoid the ownership dispute.
 ``We see this as a purely commercial dispute. . . .''
said a State Department official.

 `CORRUPTION'

 One problem might be the Haitian judicial system
itself, as described in two U.S. government reports
released within the past month. ``The judiciary is
theoretically independent. However, in practice it
remained largely weak and corrupt,'' the State
Department's annual report on human rights said of
Haiti, adding that ``years of rampant corruption
and governmental neglect have left the judicial system
poorly organized and nearly moribund.'' The State
Department's International Narcotics Control Report,
released March 1, was even more damning, noting that
``in the justice, customs and port authority sectors,
corruption remains a thriving force'' and although
judges' pay has been increased, it remains
``sufficiently meager to make them vulnerable to
bribes.' ``Similarly, poorly paid customs agents
profit from widespread contraband activities in
Haiti's ports. An estimated two-thirds of Haiti's
imports arrive without the knowledge of or with the
collusion of Haitian customs.''





Friday, April 02, 2004
> U.S. court of appeals: watch those customs duties
>
http://www.telepark.de/clubhaiti/archive/2004_03_28_charch.html
>
> As Dr. Magiot, character in The Comedians, Graham
> Greene's 1965 novel set in
> Haiti remarked back then: "It is astonishing how
> much money can be made out of
> the poor with a little ingenuity." The U.S. Court of
> Appeals for the Fifth
> Circuit has ruled that illicit payments made by a
> U.S. company to foreign
> customs officials to reduce the company’s tax and
> customs burdens may violate the
> U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the "FCPA"). The
> court’s reasoning in the
> "U.S. v. Kay" case may force many U.S. companies to
> rethink and scrutinize how
> their staffs interact with foreign government
> officials.
>
> On July 30, 2002, the Securities and Exchange
> Commission filed a civil
> injunctive action against two former officers of
> American Rice, Inc., Douglas A.
> Murphy (CEO) and David G. Kay (VP Marketing),
> alleging that they authorized over
> $500,000 in bribery payments to Haitian customs
> officials during 1998 and
> 1999. They reduced American Rice's import taxes by
> approximately US$ 1.5 million.
> A third individual, Lawrence H. Theriot, a
> Washington lobbyist who liked to
> joke that rice is "4% protein and 96% politics",
> allegedly assisted Kay and
> Murphy by monitoring the bribery scheme.
>
> Potentially the greatest significance of the
> court’s decision is not the
> specific determination that bribes to reduce customs
> duties and taxes can be
> caught by the FCPA but the court’s view that the
> FCPA, until now a rather toothless
> tiger, has a broad and sweeping reach.
>
> On December 31, 2003 American Rice announced that it
> had completed its merger
> with SOS Cuetara USA, Inc., a majority owned
> subsidiary of SOS Cuetara, S.A.,
> an international branded food company whose shares
> are publicly quoted in
> Spain. [Source: Mondaq / SEC / HP]
>
>
>


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