25714: Anonymous: (radio) Aristide Foundation for Democracy's Questionable Business Transactions Revealed (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Steve Brown <sbrown8670@earthlink.net>

Please post anonymously.
Aristide Foundation for Democracy's Questionable Business Transactions Revealed
[Radio Vision 2000, 13 Jul]

[Announcer Valery Numa, in Creole] Good morning, everybody, and welcome to this 
special segment. I am going to present a report prepared by the Central Unit 
for Financial and Economic Information [UCREF] on the financial activities of 
the Aristide Foundation for Democracy [FAD]. In its investigation, UCREF was 
able to discover a number of false businesses and enterprises that were 
handling and dealing with a great deal of money.

On 29 November 2004, the examining judge of the civil court of Port-au-Prince 
gave UCREF the authority to carry out an investigation into the financial 
activities of FAD. The investigation reveals the objective of this 
organization, its sources of financing, the various bank accounts it had, and 
how it was managed. UCREF has learned that there are many businesses and people 
that are linked to FAD. It has also learned about the money involved, what the 
money was used for, and where it has all gone.

It was not at all easy for UCREF to obtain the critical information that it 
needed especially from some of the banks in the capital. Some banks in the 
capital that did not really want to collaborate with the investigators created 
stumbling blocks. They were also blocked at the DGI [General Directorate of 
Taxes] when they tried to obtain specifications from this institution.

Incidentally, I must say that this report is well worked out. The experts did a 
very good job. They managed to find the names of the people involved in this 
business. They found names of enterprises that never existed at all but the 
names were being used. They discovered that there are businesses that were 
functioning illegally. They were not registered anywhere, and were not 
licensed. But these businesses were handling a great deal of money.

FAD had 17 bank accounts. Some of the accounts were in local currency, in 
gourdes, and some were in US dollars, but most of the accounts were in US 
dollars. As for the Aristide Foundation University, UCREF finds that this 
university was in fact registered under this title, Professional and Technical 
University [UPT]. A Chinese bank, International and Commercial Bank of China, 
financed the construction of this university. Some $500,000 was issued to the 
Ministry of Economy and Finance to start with. Later they sent another 
$500,000. Finally, the total amount sent by the Chinese Government for the 
construction of this university was $1.5 million. Now, what happened to this 
money? Did they actually build the university? Yes, it was built. But the money 
that was sent for Haiti might have been used instead for personal things.

When trying to obtain information on FAD, UCREF was able to discover a series 
of associations or businesses. There is a particular firm that was functioning 
under the name VJLS Computer Service and Accessories. This business should not 
have been considered a big store because it was a retail shop. But it should 
not be surprising to know that this small store was handling several million 
dollars. For instance, this business used to make a profit of over $1 million. 
The reports reveal that this business only makes deposits. It did not have many 
expenses; it was only receiving money.
Actually, there is a bank in the capital where all the deposits were made. It 
is Banque Populaire Haitienne, BPH [Haitian Popular Bank]. VJLS had other bank 
accounts too, but the major ones were opened at BPH. They used to deposit 
something like $2 million in just one day in an account belonging to the VJLS 
business. Actually, nobody knows what was sold for this money. In fact, most of 
the time, the money would come from Jean-Bertrand Aristide's private cabinet, 
the general administration of the National palace, as well as from other 
sources.
Now, who was the head of the VJLS store? This business, which is located on 
Impasse Laurier, Tabarre 46, [passage omitted] is managed by two women, Marie 
Alice Valin and Sonial Jean-Louis.

In 2001, they had account number 600-15-99 at BPH and they deposited 
11,710,889.99 gourdes in it. They had another account number 616-05, and they 
deposited 1.5 million gourdes in it. And they had another account in dollars 
and deposited $1.918 million in it.

In 2002, they made a deposit of 104,548,880 gourdes in the first account. They 
also made a deposit of 7,530,165.10 gourdes in the second account, and they 
deposited $15,521,630 USD in a third account.

In 2003, they made a deposit of 34,496,736 gourdes in one of the first 
accounts, and $2,330,903 in the US dollar account. So, this proves that these 
people were handling and dealing with a lot of money.

According to the report, VJLS used to make frequent deposits. For instance, if 
one day they deposited $500,000 they would make another deposit of $500,000 the 
next day in the morning. But it should be pointed out that many of the checks 
that were deposited came from President Aristide's private cabinet, and many of 
these checks could be cashed by anyone because they only had the word cash 
written on them. They were sometimes made out in the amount of $100,000, 
$500,000 or $700,000.

Now, it is not just the VJLS store that was involved in this business. There 
was also a cooperative that was called Cooperative de Consommation Soleil 
Brillant Fond'oie [COCSOBFO], which was involved in the crooked dealings too. 
This cooperative was based in Leogane. UCREF found that this cooperative made 
many transactions that looked suspicious. By the way, a lot of the money came 
from BNC [National Bank of Credit]. But it is at the BPH that all the major 
dealings were made. [passage omitted]
There are a lot of names mentioned in the report, some of them are irrelevant. 
So, I will not talk about them. But as for the three businesses mentioned 
above, they handled big money.

Let us look at some transactions that were made at the Central Bank. A great 
deal of money was withdrawn from the Central Bank and deposited in account 
number 30-338. For instance, the president's private cabinet [under the 
Aristide regime] made numerous transactions over a period of two months, and 
all of them were made in dollars. Actually, from 2001 to 2002, $12,478,271 was 
deposited in the VJLS account.

There is another business called SOCOL S.A., Construction and Housing Company. 
This business was headed by three persons, Charles Albert Jacques, Charles 
Henri Jean-Barre, and Cuban citizen (Daisi Iris Perez Sintra). Some 120 million 
gourdes was deposited in their account with no specification as to what the 
money was to be used for.



There is also another major business that is called SID S.A, Import and 
Distribution Company. It imports and exports food products. This business was 
handling big money. It should be pointed out that this business opened a lot of 
term accounts [CD accounts].

There is another business that was called Kiskeya Store [passage omitted], and 
it is a retail store. This store also opened a lot of term accounts. On 12 
January 2004, Kiskeya Store opened a term account for $500,000, and the next 
day, 13 January, they opened another term account for $160,000. But these 
accounts were closed on 19 March.

There is another business called K-DO Enterprise that also handled a lot of 
money too.

About the Se Pa'N Store, which I talked about before, they deposited $5,057,580 
in one of its accounts in 2001. You should remember that all these businesses 
had several bank accounts each.

> From February 2001, when Jean-Bertrand Aristide took office again, to 
January 2004, Se Pa'N and Kiskeya Store handled about $23,36,114. Now, you may 
ask why they put these two businesses together. Well, it is because they had 
the same owner. For everyone's information, I wish to explain that all this 
money came from the Public Treasury. They came from the Central Bank and BPH. 
Moreover, the transactions were made on a daily basis.

Now, let us talk about the people involved. There are names that we will reveal 
but there are some that we will not tell for certain reasons.

There is, however, a guy whose name is Ricardo Sanon. He was born on 22 
November 1977, and his ID number is 004-011-782-8. He is from Marigot and is 
single. He is a student. Actually, he is the president and director general of 
SID S.A., K-DO S.A, Kiskeya Store, and Se Pa'N. He was the manager of all these 
businesses. But you should remember that he was only 27 years old and never 
worked in his life.
As for the SID S.A store, it belonged to Berthe Guillaume Petit, wife of Jonas 
Petit [Jonas Petit was interim leader of the Lavalas Family party]. Ricardo 
Sanon was vice president, Katiana Sanon was secretary, Gilbert Guillaume was 
treasurer, and Givenson Paul assistant treasurer. But the two persons that were 
authorized to sign checks were Paul and Mrs. Petit. Actually, Sanon was the 
coordinator of all these businesses and facilitated all the transactions.

Actually, there are some transactions that the bank should not have agreed to 
make. For instance, when somebody comes to cash a $700,000 check, in principle, 
the bank should not have agreed to cash it. Now, people may ask, how was it 
done? And why is it that these transactions had to be made at the BPH? Well, it 
is because the director of this bank at this time was involved in the crooked 
dealings. So, she made it possible for such transactions to be made. There were 
staff members of this bank who used to refuse to authorize the transactions but 
some of them were fired because of that. Some of them would contact the 
director for authorization, and she would just send a memo to authorize them to 
carry out the transactions. But BPH was not used just to make money deposits. 
It was also a channel to transfer money into accounts in banks overseas. For 
example, several million dollars were transferred into foreign accounts in the 
United States in particular.

Venel Joseph, who was the governor of the Central Bank, transferred $450,000 
one time, and another time he transferred $520,000. And all this money was from 
Public Treasury funds. It was a channel to the Scotia Bank to replenish an 
account belonging to a Cuban firm, Ingeniera Hoteleria, to benefit the Aristide 
Foundation University.

All these businesses I talked about worked in connection with certain 
government officials at the time. But when they had to cash certain checks, 
they had to use the service of a notary public in the country. Actually, some 
of the transactions were made in the name of this notary public to facilitate 
the laundering of the money. One of the checks, according to the report, was 
not cashed.

Concerning that 27-year-old guy whose name is Ricardo Sanon, he deposited 
$525,500 into his personal account. There is Precelert Paul, a young boy, who 
made a lot of transactions too. There are other names such as Harry Bien-Aime 
and Gina Prospere that are repeated a few times in the report. These people 
were involved in numerous major transactions.

In 2003, numerous major transactions were made. But Mrs. Petit, for some 
reason, managed to close all the term accounts as well as her personal accounts 
with the complicity of BPH.


Another person that was involved in these crooked dealings was Jonas Petit, and 
this is quite logical, of course. There are a lot of other names that I really 
do not want to cite for certain reasons. When the report will be made public 
then people will know them. But there is a name of a respectable person that I 
feel that I must reveal. Actually, I do not think I will do so because this 
person is actually occupying a major post in the country. He was one of the 
people who were facilitating the crooked dealings.