Last week, the DOJ announced (here) that Jean Rene Duperval (a former director of international relations for Haiti Teleco) was “convicted by a federal jury on all counts for his role in a scheme to launder bribes paid to him by two Miami-based telecommunications companies.”

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer stated as follows.  “Mr. Duperval was convicted by a Miami jury of laundering $500,000 paid to him as part of an elaborate bribery scheme.  As the director of international relations for Haiti’s state-owned telecommunications company, Duperval doled out business in exchange for bribes and then used South Florida shell companies to conceal his crimes.  This Justice Department is committed to stamping out corruption wherever we find it.”  Duperval is scheduled to be sentenced on May 21st.

The Haiti Teleco case (minus the manufactured and now former Africa Sting case) is the largest in FCPA history in terms of defendants charged – 13.  Below is a brief summary of the actions.

Individuals Charged With FCPA and/or Related Offenses

Antonio Perez.  In April 2009, Perez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the FCPA.  As noted in this prior post, in January 2010, he was sentenced to 24 months in prison.

Juan Diaz.  In May 2009, Diaz pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the FCPA.  As noted in this prior post, in July 2010, he was sentenced to 57 months in prison.

Jean Fourcand.  As noted in this DOJ release, in February 2010, Fourcand pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering for receiving and transmitting bribe monies in the Haiti Teleco scheme.  In May 2010, Fourcard was sentenced to 6 months in prison.

Joel Esquenazi and Carlos Rodriguez.  As noted in this prior post, in August 2011, Esquenazi and Rodriguez were convicted by a jury for conspiracy to violate the FCPA, FCPA violations, and other offenses.  As noted in this prior post, in October 2011, Esquenazi was sentenced to 180 months in prison and Rodriguez was sentenced to 84 months in prison.  As noted below, Esquenazi and Rodriguez are appealing their convictions to the 11th Circuit.

Marguerite Grandison.  As noted in this DOJ release, in December 2009, Grandison was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and commit wire fraud, seven counts of FCPA violations, one count conspiracy to commit money laundering and 12 counts of money laundering.  According to a recent docket search, in February 2012, Grandison entered a not guilty plea and shortly thereafter the docket states as follows – “docket restricted/sealed until further notice.”

Washington Vasconez Cruz, Amadeus Richers and Cecilia Zurita.  These individuals (associated with Cinergy Telecommunications) are fugitives according to the DOJ.

“Foreign Officials” Charged With Non-FCPA Offenses

Duperval – see above.

Patrick Joseph. As noted in this prior post, the former director of international relations at Haiti Teleco pleaded guilty in February 2012 to conspiracy to commit money laundering. In July 2012, he was sentenced to 366 days in prison.

Robert Antoine.  As noted in this prior post, the former director of international affairs at Haiti Teleco pleaded guilty in March 2010 to conspiracy to commit money laundering.  In June 2010, he was sentenced to 48 months in prison.

Entity Charged

Cinergy Telecommunications.  As noted in this prior post, in February the DOJ moved to dismiss charges against Cinergy because it is a non-operational entity with no assets of any real value.

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Carlos Rodriguez and Joel Esquenazi are appealing their convictions to the 11th Circuit.  See here for the prior post regarding Rodriguez and his appellate counsel.  Recently, T. Markus Funk and Michael Sink (here and here of Perkins Coie) began representing Esquenazi in connection the appeal.  Funk, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago and US State Department lawyer co-chairs the ABA’s Global Anti-Corruption Task Force (here).

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This prior post discussed Haiti Teleco’s other preferred providers – namely IDT Corp. and Fusion Telecommunications – and linked to a recent Wall Street Journal article titled the “Looting of Haiti Teleco.”  The WSJ article was shortly countered with this post by Lucy Komisar.