323 Haitians sent home

MIAMI (CMC):

The United States Coast Guard said, on Monday, that it has repatriated 323 Haitians after their overloaded boats were intercepted in Bahamian waters.

They said that on Sunday one of the Coast Guard cutters intercepted a Haitian freighter with 159 passengers on board, about 33 miles west of Great Inagua, the Bahamas.

On Friday, 164 Haitians were found aboard another boat eight miles south of Great Inagua, officials said.

"The Coast Guard continues to station cutters and aircraft off the coast of Haiti to deter illegal migration and to interdict and rescue those who attempt to depart on these unsafe vessels and dangerous voyages," said Captain Steven Banks, chief of enforcement of the Seventh Coast Guard District.

In a statement, Banks said Friday's interception was the largest since the January 12 earthquake that devastated Haiti, killing an estimated 300,000 people and leaving 1.3 million homeless.

Meanwhile, a United States federal judge has sentenced a Miami businessman to 57 months in prison for his participation in a conspiracy to pay bribes to former Haitian officials.

Imposed sentence

The US Department of Justice said in a statement that US District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez imposed the sentence on Juan Diaz, 52.

Judge Martinez also ordered Diaz to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.

In addition, the judge ordered Diaz to pay US$73,824 in restitution and to forfeit over one million dollars.

In May last year, Diaz pleaded guilty to "one-count information," charging him with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and money laundering.

In his plea deal, Diaz admitted to "conspiring to make corrupt payments to foreign government officials for the purpose of securing business advantages for three different Miami-Dade County telecommunications companies from Haiti's state-owned national telecommunications company, Telecommunications D'Haiti," the Justice Department said.

The department said Diaz concealed these payments in part by laundering the funds through his company, J.D. Locator Services.

According to court documents, Diaz paid and concealed US$1,028,851 in bribes to former Haitian government officials while serving as an intermediary for the three private telecommunications companies.

One of these officials, Robert Antoine, admitted his acceptance of bribes, including bribes from Diaz and pleaded guilty on March 12 to money laundering conspiracy. Antoine was sentenced to four years in prison, the Justice Department said.