Indicting a "Foreign Official"

Yesterday, the DOJ announced (see here) the unsealing of an indictment (see here) against Joel Esquenazi, Carlos Rodriguez, and Marguerite Grandison which charges (among other things) conspiracy to violate the FCPA and substantive FCPA violations for an alleged scheme to bribe two former employees of Haiti Teleco, the alleged "state-owned national telecommunications company."

Esquenazi and Rodriguez are former executives of a privately owned, Florida-based telecommunications company and Grandison was the President of Telecom Consulting Services Corp., a Florida based company which served as an intermediary.

The unsealed indictment is the latest chapter in this matter; in May 2009, the DOJ announced (see here) the guilty pleas of Juan Diaz and Antonio Perez in connection with the same scheme.

This matter is also yet another example of an FCPA enforcement action in which the "foreign official" is an employee of an alleged state-owned or state-controlled entity.

That, however, is not why this enforcement action is noteworthy.

It is noteworthy because DOJ also indicted Robert Antoine and Jean Rene Duperval - the alleged "foreign officials." According to the indictment, Antoine and Duperval both served as the "Director of International Relations of Haiti Teleco" and were responsible for negotiating contracts with international telecommunications companies on behalf of Haiti Teleco.

Of course, the charges were not FCPA charges, because the FCPA only covers "bribe-payers" not "bribe-takers" (see here, here, for prior posts on this subject).

Rather the charges against Antoine and Duperval were money laundering conspiracy and/or substantive money laundering charges.

According to the DOJ release, Antoine is from "Miami and Haiti" and Duperval is from "Miramar, Fla. and Haiti." Further, according to the indictment, both individuals had bank accounts in the U.S. and these accounts were used in connection with the bribery scheme. (I wonder if Washington Mutual, Wachovia, or Miami Federal Credit Union were aware that Haitian "foreign officials" were among its customers!)

To my knowledge this is the first time "foreign officials" have been specifically charged as defendants in connection with an FCPA enforcement action. This indictment of "foreign officials" comes on the heels of AG Holder's recent speech (see here) in which he stated that the U.S. government was committed to recovering funds obtained by "foreign officials" through bribery.