Haiti: Former Haitian telecom official gets 9 years in prison for bribery

MIAMI — A federal judge Monday sentenced a former top official of Haiti's state-owned telephone company to nine years in prison, after describing as "ludicrous" his testimony that the bribes he took from two Miami businesses were gifts for doing such a good job for them.

"It's perjurious," U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez said of Jean Rene Duperval's trial testimony in March. Duperval testified that the nearly $500,000 in bribes he received from two local telecom contractors were "tokens of appreciation."

The judge's finding of obstruction of justice, with other factors such as the amount of the kickbacks, doubled Duperval's sentencing under federal guidelines. Martinez ordered Duperval, 45, to pay the kickback amount to the U.S. government. The defendant used some of the money to buy his Miramar home and finance his three children's Florida Prepaid College Plans, prosecutors said.

Duperval's wife, Ingrid, tried to impress upon the judge that her husband was a U.S.-educated engineer from a prominent Haitian family headed by two doctors, and she wished Martinez had met him "under better circumstances."

Justice Department prosecutor James Koukios offered a different portrayal, saying Duperval "was born with a silver spoon in his mouth."

"And what did he do? He exploited that benefit" to obtain a high-ranking management job with Haiti Teleco and loot the country and line his pockets, Koukios said.

In March, a Miami federal jury found that the two telecommunications companies, Cinergy and Terra, secured discounted long-distance phone rates with Haiti Teleco due to the payoffs to Duperval. He was convicted of money laundering and conspiracy related to accepting the bribes.

Duperval, who was hired as Haiti Teleco's director of international relations by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2003, is the first Haitian government official to be convicted at trial by the Justice Department under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The law prohibits American businesses from paying bribes to foreign businesses and government officials.

Duperval's former boss at Haiti Teleco, Patrick Joseph, pleaded guilty to similar charges earlier this year. Joseph, 50, is the Justice Department's main witness in a long-running investigation into Aristide's alleged role in the Haiti Teleco bribery case.

In March, Joseph's father was shot to death in the capital of Port-au-Prince.
Venel Joseph, 80, the former governor of Haiti's Central Bank during the Aristide administration from 2001-04, was killed outside his home by gunmen on motorcycles in a residential area. Joseph's driver survived the ambush.

Because of security concerns, Venel Joseph's body was brought to South Florida for burial.

The shooting occurred two days after The Miami Herald reported that the son, Patrick Joseph, had cut a cooperation deal with the Justice Department.

Patrick Joseph pleaded guilty in February to a money-laundering conspiracy charge, and agreed to testify about millions of dollars in bribes he claims to have shared with Aristide and other senior officials, according to legal sources familiar with the probe.

Aristide's lawyer, Ira Kurzban, has denied the allegation.

The country's central bank owned Haiti Teleco and was used to distribute the kickbacks paid by the Miami businesses, according to an indictment.

Since the first Haiti Teleco indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in 2009, a dozen South Florida business people and Haitian officials have been charged in the case.

Profits from the lower long-distance phone rates were pocketed by the Haitian officials, not the government's phone company. So far, seven of those defendants - including Patrick Joseph - have been convicted of corruption or money laundering.

Joseph is expected to be sentenced this summer.

A key witness at Duperval's trial was Robert Antoine, who was Haiti Teleco's director of international relations before Duperval. In 2010, Antoine pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit money laundering, admitting he took $1 million in bribes from Terra and Cinergy in exchange for lower phone rates, discounted costs and contract renewals.

At Duperval's trial, Antoine testified after he left the government job, he worked as a consultant for Cinergy and facilitated payments from that business to the defendant. Antoine, who was sentenced to four years in prison, is expected to see his term slashed in half by the judge next week at the recommendation of the Justice Department.

Copyright 2012 . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Jay Weaver | McClatchy Newspapers

©2012 The Miami Herald

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/05/21/149617/former-haitian-telecom-official.html#storylink=cpy

Department of Energy: Web-based Project Preserves Plant’s Uranium Enrichment Legacy

EM News Flash | May 21 Virtual Museum Captures Ohio Plant History Web-based Project Preserves Plant’s Uranium Enrichment Legacy PIKETON, Ohio – Do you wonder what the interior of a uranium enrichment plant looks like without ever stepping foot in the facility?    Now, the public can view photos, watch interviews with current and former workers who share historical accounts and browse old newsletters on the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant from as far back as the early 1950s with the touch of a computer keyboard or screen.    DOE launched the website, www.portsvirtualmuseum.org, this year. Already, it has generated more than 36,000 page views and 3,000 people from 22 countries have visited the website.    DOE established the website to preserve the rich history of its southern Ohio plant built between 1952 and 1956 to support the nation’s nuclear weapons program. The website is maintained by DOE contractor Fluor-B&W Portsmouth LLC.    “The plant played an important role in supporting our nation’s defense through the Cold War as well as the development of nuclear energy,” said Dr. Vince Adams, DOE Site Director. “I am proud of its history and the virtual museum allows everyone to step inside and learn more about this engineering and scientific marvel.” An online museum on the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant went live earlier this year.    The facility was the last of three gaseous diffusion plants built in the United States by DOE’s predecessor agency, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The Portsmouth plant ended production of enriched uranium in May 2001, and preparations to decontaminate and decommission (D&D) the facility are under way. The other two plants were built in Oak Ridge, Tenn. and Paducah, Ky. The Oak Ridge facility is currently being dismantled and Paducah’s is still operational.    A special feature on the website is a 26-minute documentary, “The Portsmouth Story,” produced by AEC. The feature contains footage of the plant being built on the 3,777-acre federal property.    At the time of the Ohio plant's construction, the facility's three uranium enrichment process buildings were among the largest in the world, encompassing more than 10 million square feet on 90 acres. Altogether, those three buildings are comparable in size to three Yankee Stadiums and a football field. More than 100,000 tons of structural steel were used to construct the Ohio buildings, and the facility used more than 2,000 megawatts of electricity daily during full operation. That was enough power to service New York City at that time.    The plant’s initial mission was to produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear-weapons-grade material at the height of the Cold War. In the 1960s, its mission shifted to production of lower enriched uranium for U.S. Naval nuclear submarine reactors and commercial nuclear power plants.    After enriched uranium production ended at the plant, it was placed in a cold standby mode for potential restart. However, in 2005, DOE transitioned the plant into cold shutdown to deactivate equipment and prepare for eventual dismantlement. In 2010, DOE awarded a $2.1 billion contract to Fluor-B&W to conduct the D&D activities.    Workers under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act have demolished some small support facilities at the site. Fluor-B&W is preparing to demolish several additional support buildings, including the plant’s primary administration building, former cafeteria and medical facility, all built in the early 1950s.    “Some of the buildings are starting to disappear from the landscape,” Adams said. “This website will preserve much of the history and be an educational source for many years into the future.”    In addition to the newsletters, videos, exterior and interior building images and photos of workers, the virtual museum includes a general plant history and other documentation.    Photos, videotaped interviews and other information related to the more than 130 buildings that comprise the plant will be added to the website on an ongoing basis. Visit Us on the Web: www.em.doe.gov

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Whole Community: Communities taking control

Using the Toxic Release Inventory to Build Power in Communities

2012 May 17

By Erin Heaney

When Congress created the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), they intended for communities to have access to information about what was happening at the facilities in their neighborhoods. But until very recently, in the neighborhood we live in, many folks didn’t know the database existed and others didn’t have access to computers or know how to use them.

My organization, the Clean Air Coalition, was founded by residents in Tonawanda, NY who suspected that their pervasive health problems were linked to the industrial plants in their neighborhoods. There are 53 industrial facilities in Tonawanda, which is the highest concentration of air-regulated facilities in the state.

We have built power by developing grassroots leaders who run campaigns that advance environmental justice in Western New York. For example, in March we trained our membership on how to use the TRI.

We spent the first half of the training learning about history of TRI and about how it was through communities standing up and saying that they needed more information about the environmental conditions in their communities that led to the creation of the TRI. Our members learned who reports to TRI, as well as when and how the data is verified. Afterward, we headed over to the computer lab to learn how to use the EPA TRI tool myrtk.epa.gov. Our members dug into the data for their neighborhoods and learned which companies were polluting, what they were emitting and what the health effects of those emissions were.

Their reactions were powerful. One member said, “I’m sick to my stomach;” another said, “This makes me angry and makes me want to do something about it.” Folks left the training ready to recruit more of their neighbors to push for emissions reductions from companies and policymakers.

    The training took place during the Coalition’s campaign to ensure the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (NYS DEC) air monitors remained up and running. The training educated members about what was in their back yards and motivated them to advocate for air monitoring in the community. In the end, our work paid off and the campaign successfully resulted in a commitment from the NYS DEC to keep the monitors up and running for another two years.                                                                                                   

At our office we have a saying: “Knowledge isn’t power. Power is power.” While access to information alone doesn’t make change, providing people with information about what’s happening in their neighborhoods is an essential piece of building power in environmental justice communities.

About the author: Erin Heaney is the Executive Director of the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, a grassroots organization that develops community leadership to win campaigns that advance public health and environmental justice. She has trained hundreds of grassroots leaders and won campaigns that have resulted in significant emissions reductions from some of the region’s largest polluters.

Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.