But under Canadian regulations, the purchase should have raised a red flag, said Garry Clement, the former head of an R.C.M.P. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the national police force, said it could not disclose whether it was also investigating the transaction. With outrage brewing, the Haitian government’s Anti-Corruption Unit launched an investigation into the purchase of the Célestin home in Canada in February. Célestin said he had had for four years through the company.
While politicians are permitted to own businesses, the Constitution forbids them from having contracts with the state, which Mr. Célestin said he also owned a gas company called PetroGaz-Haiti, but by his own description, it appeared to violate legal prohibitions against profiting from state funds. On the two occasions when The Times visited, the office was closed, or a single person was there who could provide no information about the station - not even an advertising rate sheet. The station does have a small, discreet office in the suburb of Petionville, with no signs. Célestin said he also had a radio station called Model FM, which he started in a rural region but which grew to the point that he installed it in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, the capital. Célestin’s business empire on the ground in Haiti differed greatly from the image he painted. Referring to his critics, he added: “I don’t have to be scared of a bunch of vagabonds, bastards and criminals.”īut the traces of Mr. “I came from nowhere, and I became who I am with no support,” he said. He is now a member of the assassinated president’s Bald Head Haitian party. Célestin said he began his business career by importing products in a rented truck, sometimes sleeping on the sacks of sugar and flour he was shuttling. Célestin said.Ī son of farmers who grew up in a rural area, Mr. “I don’t have to justify myself, I’m sick of having to do it,” Mr. He gave his wife, Marie Louisa Célestin, the money to buy the mansion in late 2020, he said, so that she and their children could enjoy the “social advantages” of living in Canada.
Célestin, 46, said he amassed his wealth in farming, importing and other legitimate businesses that earned him millions of dollars a month. Transparency International, the anticorruption monitor, ranked Haiti 170th out of 180 countries for perceived levels of corruption in 2020 - tied with North Korea. Célestin have been accused of enriching themselves while failing to provide the country with even the most basic services. Armed gangs control many areas, poverty and hunger are rising and officials like Mr. And as the country has spiraled into turmoil in recent months, members of the political elite have prospered abroad in places like the Dominican Republic, the United States and Canada, investing their money - and in some cases laundering it, the authorities say - through real estate.ĭespite billions of dollars in reconstruction aid after a devastating earthquake in 2010, the country has not rebuilt, and many contend it is worse off. But critics call the Senate dysfunctional.
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