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Florida Telecommunications Execs Charged in Bribery Scheme
A brazen foreign bribery scheme has landed several high-ranking officials from a Florida telecommunications company in hot water. Cinergy Telecommunications Inc., the president and director, and two former Haitian government officials have been charged in a superseding indictment for their alleged roles in a foreign bribery, wire fraud and money laundering scheme.
According to the superseding indictment, the defendants allegedly participated in a scheme to commit foreign bribery and money laundering from December 2001 through January 2006. The indictment alleges that during this time period Cinergy and its related company, Uniplex Telecommunications Inc., allegedly paid more than $1.4 million to shell companies to be used for bribes to foreign officials of the Republic of Haiti’s state-owned national telecommunications company, Telecommunications D’Haiti (Haiti Teleco).
The bribe payments allegedly were authorized by Washington Vasconez Cruz, the telecommunications companies’ president, and Amadeus Richers, the companies’ director, and were allegedly paid to Haitian government officials at Haiti Teleco, including Patrick Joseph and Jean Rene Duperval. According to the superseding indictment, the purpose of these bribes was to obtain various business advantages from the Haitian officials for Cinergy and Uniplex, including preferred telecommunications rates and credits toward sums owed.
To conceal the bribe payments, the defendants allegedly used various shell companies to receive and forward the payments, including J.D. Locator Services, Fourcand Enterprises and Telecom Consulting Services. The six defendants charged in the superseding indictment are: Washington Vasconez Cruz, 63, of Miami, the president of Cinergy and Uniplex; Amadeus Richers, 60, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., and Brazil, the then-director of Cinergy and Uniplex; Cinergy Telecommunications Inc., a privately-held telecommunications company incorporated in Florida; Patrick Joseph, 49, of Miami and Haiti, a former general director for telecommunications at Haiti Teleco; Jean Rene Duperval, 44, of Miramar, Fla., and Haiti, a former director of international relations for telecommunications at Haiti Teleco; and Marguerite Grandison, 42, of Miramar, the former president of Telecom Consulting Services Corp., and Duperval’s sister.
The superseding indictment also charges Duperval and Grandison with laundering corrupt payments authorized by Joel Esquenazi and Carlos Rodriguez on behalf of another Florida telec. The defendants are accused of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and to commit wire fraud, FCPA violations, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering.
The investigation into this case was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation’s (IRS-CI) Miami Field Office. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Category: Public Corruption|Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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