Haiti investigates the villa of a senator in Laval

Haitian authorities are investigating the acquisition of a $ 4.25 million villa in Laval by a consul and a senator from that country.

• Read also: Relatives of a Haitian senator invest $ 6 million in Quebec

Haiti’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ULCC) is launching this procedure after the purchase of the luxury property in December and two other investments, including a loan to a business partner of the senator in question, Rony Célestin. The three transactions total $ 6.4 million.

The Director General of the ULCC, Hans Jacques Ludwig Joseph, explains on Twitter that he himself undertook the investigation “for suspicion of corruption”.

Two weeks ago, a Haitian website published a text on the $ 4.25 million transaction in Laval, carried out without any mortgage financing, information confirmed by our Bureau of Investigation and Press.

The newspaper also revealed that the Haitian consul in Montreal, Marie Louisa Aubin Célestin, wife of the senator, had granted a loan of $ 1.37 million to a certain Jean-François Châtaigne.

This Laval resident of Haitian origin started a business with Rony Célestin in 2020, according to public records.

The ULCC makes no mention of the couple’s transaction with him.

Bank refusal

During a meeting at his home, Jean-François Châtaigne assured the Journal that his business plan with the Senator had finally collapsed.

“The bank didn’t want to open the account, so I don’t have a business partner,” he said. It did not work.”

However, he did not say what their plan was.

The loan granted to him by the consul was used to acquire land in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines where there are dry materials recycling facilities.

Importing materials

Contacted by our Investigation Office on Tuesday, the lawyer for the Célestin couple, Alexandre Bergevin, sent us a statement affirming that the couple had made a fortune in importing construction materials and fuel.

“All these activities have always been carried out and are still carried out under the regular and legal conditions determined by the market price and customs and fiscal fees”, according to the email he sent.

Met at the Consulate General of Montreal, the chef de mission Fritz Dorvilier had acknowledged that he had “a concern” about the transactions of the Célestin couple in Quebec.

He decided, however, that he did not have to go into his colleague’s business.

“She works here, but it’s not our business, it’s a private matter,” he says. It has diplomatic status. If she has the means, I don’t have the power to ask her to prove it, I have no right to supervise her property. “

According to him, the responsibility for such checks falls rather, precisely, to the ULCC, which has just announced the launch of an investigation on Twitter.

In addition to their latest investments, the Célestin couple acquired their first property in Laval in 2018 for $ 800,000, still without a mortgage.

The senator, close to the President of the Republic Jovenel Moïse, also owns a large property in the suburbs of the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince.

The country is currently shaken by another serious political crisis. The president says his term continues until February 2022, while the opposition believes it ended on February 7. On that day, authorities jailed 23 people, accusing them of plotting a coup.

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