U.S. sanctions ex-Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, says he ‘misappropriated’ $60 million

The United States Friday sanctioned former Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Salvador Lamothe, accusing him of misappropriating tens of millions of dollars in Venezuelan aid that was supposed to help the Caribbean nation rebuild after its devastating 2010 earthquake.

In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Lamothe, 50, was involved in “significant corruption” and the designation means that the former head of Haiti’s government, who calls Miami home, is “generally ineligible for entry into the United States.”

Lamothe departed the United States late last month, a development that the United States had been waiting for, a U.S. official said. Upon receiving confirmation on May 30 of his exit, the State Department issued the sanction, the official said.

The United States, Blinken said, will continue to support those citizens, public servants and organizations in Haiti that are committed to generating hope and opportunity for a better future in their nation.

“The United States will continue to promote accountability for those who abuse public power for personal gain. Today’s designation is part of a series of actions that promote accountability for those who foment violence, block life-saving humanitarian support and enrich themselves at the expense of the Haitian people,” he said.

In an exclusive interview with the Miami Herald, Lamothe adamantly pushed back on the allegation, accusing the United States of falling for the “false narrative” of the Haitian political discourse that for years has sought to assassinate his character.

“I’m very disappointed in a decision like that,” he said. “You decide to do something like that if you have proof and you present the proof; especially for a country that I love and I respect such as the U.S; coming up with a baseless, meritless accusation is preposterous.”

Lamothe is alleged to have misappropriated PetroCaribe funds — aid that came through the provision of discounted oil deliveries from Venezuela. In the wake of the earthquake, Haiti was supposed to use the assistance to help the country rebuild. The country’s alleged misappropriation of nearly $2 billion in PetroCaribe funds has long been a flash point for anti-corruption activists, who launched protests and a social media campaign during the presidency of President Jovenel Moïse, who was also accused of receiving millions of dollars for questionable road projects that Haitian auditors said were part of the embezzlement scheme.

“Specifically, Lamothe misappropriated at least $60 million from the Haitian government’s PetroCaribe infrastructure investment and social welfare fund for private gain,” Blinken said in a statement. “Through this corrupt act and his direct involvement in the management of the fund, he exploited his role as a public official and contributed to the current instability in Haiti.”

READ MORE: Haitian businessman who provided weapons, lodging in plot to kill Moïse gets life in U.S.

The PetroCaribe aid existed before the tenure of Lamothe and then-President Michel Martelly. Under the program, Haiti, along with other Caribbean and Central American countries, not only acquired petroleum products at a discount, but was able to spread the costs over 25 years at a 1% interest rate.

The savings, in Haiti’s case, were supposed to finance social and economic projects for the poor after the earthquake. But critics — and several government audits — said the money was embezzled. One report detailed $1.7 billion worth of no-bid contracts that were given by the Haitian government between 2008 and 2016. Auditors found that while contracts were signed and money was paid out, many of the projects were never completed.

The revelations and Haiti’s $2 billion debt to Venezuela have long sparked demands for accountability from the country’s politicians, with Haitians taking to the streets and calling for arrests.

In the interview, Lamothe did not say where he is and added he had no idea that he would be sanctioned, pushing back on accusations that he left the United States as a result of being blacklisted.

Expressing “shock” at the United States’ decision, he vowed to fight for his “honor and dignity.”

“This is the most unfair thing; they are destroying my family, destroying my kids with accusations based on zero proof,” said the married father of two U.S.-born daughters.

READ MORE: How U.S. sanctions turn people into ‘economic pariahs’ and why some call it a civil death

A Miami resident and Barry University graduate before he entered Haitian politics, Lamothe played a pivotal role in the controversial 2011 election of Martelly, a musician-turned-politician. At first, he served as Martelly’s foreign minister and then seven months later, following the ouster of Martelly’s first prime minister, Lamothe became prime minister and minister of planning and external cooperation on May 4, 2012.

It was a job that raised his profile as he crisscrossed the country holding town hall-like meetings, fired people via his Blackberry and rubbed shoulders with some of the world’s leading politicians as he declared Haiti was open for business. But while his supporters lauded his efforts, Lamothe’s detractors accused his government of being too flashy and lacking transparency when it came to doling over government contracts.

In late 2014, Lamothe’s run finally came to an end when then U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon flew to Port-au-Prince amid a polarizing political crisis and told Martelly he would need to fire his best friend in order to bring some stability to the country.

At the time, the administration was the target of anti-government protests with Haiti logging more than 80 demonstrations in one month as even school children took to the streets. Various corruption scandals were also making headlines with Lamothe being the target as head of the government.

“I was in office for 2 1/2 years,” he said. “What can you do in a country about something that was happening before I was there?...It’s really unfair to ask somebody who was there for two years to block years, decades of corruption in a country.”

Corruption in Haiti, he said, did not begin with him and will not end with him. He distanced himself from various scandals such as millions of dollars in donor money that were supposed to build new schools but went to fly by night companies with no construction experience.

He noted that he passed an anti-corruption law in 2014 and did his best to block contraband at the border and through customs, and reinforced the nation’s anti-corruption unit.

“It’s defamation by definition with zero proof,” he said of the U.S. designation, which for now, is much like a visa ban.

Tech and media savvy, Lamothe also during his tenure introduced a controversial $1.50 “diaspora” tax on wire transfers to Haiti and another tax on international phone calls. The money was supposed to go to pay for schooling. However, government audits found that the money had not gone to the projects the funds were being solicited for.

During his time in office, he also repeatedly came under fire from donors over no-bid contracts, questions about public expenditures in general and his and Martelly’s close ties to Venezuela and its controversial leader, Hugo Chávez. He routinely defended his decisions, saying Haiti was in crisis and needed all the friends it could get and had no time for red tape in the course of responding to emergencies like hurricanes.

Even after stepping away from public office, Lamothe remained a controversial figure in Haitian politics — and an important behind-the-scenes player serving as an influential adviser to Moïse and even drawing the ire of his former friend, Martelly, as some wondered about his own presidential aspirations.

On Friday, he said he stands by his management of government projects using PetroCaribe funds, noting that while there were accusations pointed out in government audits, none accused him directly.

“There was an orchestrated character assassination against me for years,” Lamothe said. “I’m probably one of the only Haitians official who has been through five audits on my management and the results of the five audits have shown no wrongdoing or misappropriation of any funds.”

Four of those audits, he said, are from Haiti’s government auditors while a fifth is from the donor, Venezuela. He said the government of Venezuela wrote to the Haitian government after an audit it conducted saying that “they were satisfied by the management of the PetroCaribe funds from 2012 to 2014.”

“The donor country is saying they are satisfied with the funds I managed that they donated and then 10 years later, the U.S. says I misappropriated $60 million?” he said. “Where is the proof, where is the bank account, where is the evidence? In any country in the world, there is supposed to be due process. Where is the due process? How do I defend myself against that?”

To date, Lamothe is the most high-profile Haitian political figure sanctioned by the Biden administration, which has come under fire for not being aggressive enough with sanctions against Haitian business and political figures.

In November, he was sanctioned by the government of Canada along with Martelly and former Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Henry Céant, who served under Moise. Under the Canadian sanctions, the three are banned from transactions in Canada, and any assets they have in the country will be frozen.

The harsh economic sanctions followed a unanimous decision by the U.N. Security Council in October to punish the leaders of criminal gangs in Haiti and those who help finance and arm them. Soon after, Canada enacted Haiti sanctions under the Special Economic Measures Act and the United Nations Act in response to activities of criminal gangs. The measures came into force earlier this month.

Canadian officials did not provide specifics for their sanctions — only that those sanctioned in Haiti are “suspected of protecting and enabling the illegal activities of armed criminal gangs in Haiti, including through money laundering and other acts of corruption.”

McClatchy Senior National Security and White House Correspondent Michael Wilner contributed to this report.